First Long-Distance Call
To make a telephone call across the country in 1915 took five switchboard operators and more than 20 minutes to complete. But after area codes were introduced by AT&T and Bell Laboratories, the quest to make a call without an operator was underway. The technology was put to the test on November 10, 1951, when the first transcontinental telephone call was placed by the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, to the mayor of Alameda, California. The call took 18 second to complete.
