WHITE HORSE, May 22. - This is the story of the completion of a telephone-teletype line from Edmonton to White Horse - the completion of a line across miles of mountains and muskeg and snow and ice to connect this northern town with the rest of the world by wire.
First messages to flash across the new line yesterday were of congratulation to the Northwest Service Command of the United States Army which completed
the 1580-mile link started last August 15.
The line was constructed under the most hazardous conditions. Blasting of post holes in the dead of winter at 60 below and crawling around in slimy mud waist-deep are only two opposite angles of what was a tremendous job.
LONGEST IN WORLD.
Now complete, this line is the longest open wire toll circuit line in the world.
The crews that constructed it already are pushing northwestward toward Fairbanks, Alaska, 600 additional miles, which they expect to reach by Sept. 1. When the lihe is completed into Fairbanks it will be about 2200 miles long with 22 repeater stations. Some engineers shake their heads when they think of this line passing through limitless wastes of snow and ice impossible to patrol, but hardy pioneers say "she's in to stay."
When completed to Fairbanks, the line will run through four international time zones - mountain time to Edmonton, Pacific time to Dawson Creek, B.C, Yukon time to White Horse and Alaska time to Fairbanks.
No line has ever reached this far north before, or stretched for anything that resembles this distance in uncharted and uninhabited country.
Also opened officially along the Alaska Highway was a system of teletypes running from White Horse to Edmonton.
This despatch was the first official message of its kind to be sent over the line.
