Key West HISTORIC MARKER TOUR

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Hear the Key West "Voices of History™" on our Phone Tour (305) 507-0300

The Cable Hut

CIRCA 1917

The concrete structure next to the Southernmost point was brought to Key West by Flagler’s railroad in 1917. This cable hut was needed because the number of telegraph lines to Cuba was increasing and this hut was installed to protect the connection between the land line in Key West and the 125 mile long underwater telegraph cable running to Havana, Cuba.A few years earlier, through cables like the ones this concrete hut was protecting, on Christmas Day in 1900 the first international phone call was made. John W. Atkins called to Cuba testing to see if it would be possible for voice to be heard through the telegraph lines. After a long silence, Cuba answered with a simple “I don’t understand you.”The cable hut still stands today as a monument to remind us how international communication truly started.