The Guam Cable Station is where the United States territory of

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

was first connected via modern telecommunications to the rest of the world. Reduced to ruins by the fighting of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the ruins of the establishment remain on the grounds of

Naval Base Guam Naval Base Guam is a strategic U.S. naval base located on Apra Harbor and occupying the Orote Peninsula. In 2009, it was combined with Andersen Air Force Base to form Joint Region Marianas, which is a Navy-controlled joint base. The Ship Repa ...

on the west side of the island.

History

In 1901, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company offered to lay a cable between the

continental United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

and Guam at no cost to the federal government. In 1903 the company began construction of a series of buildings near what was the village of Sumay. Designed to be proof against typhoons, earthquakes, and other perils, the complex included the main cable station building, several buildings of living quarters, and a self-contained water supply system. The cable connecting Guam to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

was completed in June 1903, marking the complete encirclement of the globe by communications cables. This station became a major communications hub, eventually also housing cables to China and the island of

Yap Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micr ...

, and becoming an early-warning center for typhoons. Operation of the cable was interrupted by the Japanese invasion of Guam in 1941. It resumed with the

liberation of Guam The Battle of Guam (21 July–10 August 1944) was the American recapture of the Japanese-held island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Mariana Islands captured by the Japanese from the United States in the First Battle of Guam in 1941 during ...

in 1944, but continued only until 1951, when the cable between Guam and Hawaii was broken. Since then the remains of the cable station have been succumbing to the elements. Its remains were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places listings in Guam __NOTOC__ This is a list of the buildings, sites, districts, and objects listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Guam. There are currently 134 listed sites spread across 17 of the 19 villages of Guam. The villages of Agana Heig ...

in 1979.

References

Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Guam Buildings and structures completed in 1903 Communications in Guam * World War II on the National Register of Historic Places in Guam 1903 establishments in Guam Sumay, Guam Telecommunications buildings on the National Register of Historic Places {{Guam-struct-stub