Samuel F.B. Morse, an artist turned inventor, invented the electromagnetic telegraph. When Congress denied his application to paint a historical mural in the Capitol rotunda, Morse completed the last of his paintings and devoted himself to the study of un-modulated electrical impulses. Morse’s interest in telegraphy began in 1832, ten years after he exhibited “his first great” painting The House of Representatives. Only the Panic of 1837 slowed Morse’s success. On May 24, 1844 Morse sent a telegraph, via above ground wire, from the US Capitol’s Supreme Court chamber to the B&O Railroad depot in Baltimore. Partner Alfred Vail was on site in Baltimore and replied. “It gives us much pleasure to be able to state that the construction of the experimental Telegraph between Washington and [Baltimore] has been…completed,” the Baltimore American reported. “Several messages were conveyed backwards and forward in an incredibly short space of time…If…the work is to be judged by the results so far, the success of MORSE’s experiment…will, indeed, be almost a total annihilation of time and space.” In 1845 Morse’s Magnetic Telegraph Company formed and, soon after, his wire telegraph extended from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore to Philadelphia and New York. Alexandria’s Telegraph Road follows the extended 1847 line, the country’s second oldest line from Washington, D.C. to Petersburg, Virginia and beyond [Marker E62]. “The Common Council of Alexandria grant[s] the proprietors of Morse’s Telegraph Co. the right to extend the line through such streets of the city as may be approved by the city and that such posts may be placed at such points which will not cause obstructions to the free and convenient passage of the streets and that such posts shall be neatly kept,” The Alexandria Gazette wrote in 1846. “A proper telegraph station shall be established, kept and served….” Prior to…