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American Experience
S17.E7
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IMDbPro

The Great Transatlantic Cable

  • Episode aired Apr 11, 2005
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
38
YOUR RATING
David Ogden Stiers, David McCullough, and Michael Murphy in American Experience (1987)
DocumentaryBiographyHistory

The story of Cyrus Field and the creation of the transatlantic telegraph line.The story of Cyrus Field and the creation of the transatlantic telegraph line.The story of Cyrus Field and the creation of the transatlantic telegraph line.

  • Director
    • Peter Jones
  • Writer
    • David Axelrod
  • Stars
    • Linda Hunt
    • Daniel Czitrom
    • Gillian Cookson
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    38
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Peter Jones
    • Writer
      • David Axelrod
    • Stars
      • Linda Hunt
      • Daniel Czitrom
      • Gillian Cookson
    • 2User reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
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    Top cast

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    Linda Hunt
    Linda Hunt
    • Self - Narrator
    • (voice)
    Daniel Czitrom
    • Self - Historian
    Gillian Cookson
    • Self - Historian
    John Steele Gordon
    • Self - Author of "A Thread Across the Ocean"
    Bernard Finn
    • Self - Smithsonian Institute
    Donard De Cogan
    • Self - Engineer
    Colin Hempstead
    • Self - Engineer
    John Mackay
    John Mackay
    • Cyrus Field
    Mike McColl
    Mike McColl
    • Voice of Cyrus Field
    • (voice)
    • (as Michael McColl)
    Alex Allen
    • Re-enactor
    Jonathan Beedell
    • Re-enactor
    John Berry
    • Re-enactor
    Martyn Bill
    • Re-enactor
    Amy Booth
    • Re-enactor
    Mark Bryan
    • Re-enactor
    Martin Cook
    • Re-enactor
    Robin Davies
    • Re-enactor
    Piers Drew-Wilkinson
    • Re-enactor
    • Director
      • Peter Jones
    • Writer
      • David Axelrod
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Storyline

    Edit

    User reviews2

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    An amazing feat!
    Linda Hunt narrates this installment of "The American Experience". It's all about Cyrus Field and his drive to create a telegraph cable to connect North America with Europe. Considering this means laying a cable on the sea floor from Labrador to Ireland (about 2000 miles), this seems like an insanely impossible task. And, it turns out according to this show it was NOT easy and the task was fraught with problems. All in all, it's one of the more technically interesting shows from the series as even today it's hard to imagine such a difficult task. The show features narration, interviews and quite a few recreations with a guy who actually looked a lot like Field. Well done in all respects, this episode will probably appeal most to scientific types, such as engineers, but I enjoyed it as well for addressing a historical topic seldom mentioned otherwise. Very informative and well made.

    By the way, it was never mentioned but I wondered if the original copper cable was able to be used for phone calls or just for telegraphs. I assume just telegraphs but no mention was made of this--but the show did say that several more transatlantic cables were later laid.
    helpful•3
    0
    • planktonrules
    • May 3, 2012

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • April 11, 2005 (United States)
    • Official site
      • PBS (United States)
    • Language
      • English
    • Production companies
      • Green Umbrella Ltd.
      • Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
      • WGBH
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      2 hours
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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