Left to Right: U.N. Bethell, Senior Vice-President American Telephone & Telegraph Co., presiding; Hon. George McAneny, President Board of Alderman, New York City; John J. Carty, Chief Engineer, American Telephone & Telegraph Co.; Alexander Graham Bell, John Purroy Mitchel, Mayor of New York; C.E. Yost, President of Nebraska Telephone Co., Omaha; Hon. William A. Prendergast, Comptroller of the City of New York
“Mr. Watson, come here. I want you,” Alexander Graham Bell repeated his famous statement from New York City into the telephone in front of him. “It will take me five days to get there now,” replied his assistant Dr. Watson, from his location in San Francisco. January 25, 1915 marked the date of the first transcontinental telephone call, initiating long distance transcontinental service.
As we can now pick up our mobile phones and call someone standing on the other side of the world, Great Plains Communications wanted to do a throwback to when a 3,400-mile call across the United States was an astonishing goal to accomplish. Please also notice in the caption, that C.E. Yost, President of the Nebraska Telephone Company was also present on this day in history.