Reactions ranged after the debut demonstration of the telephone from the skeptical to the more skeptical, with few outside of Alexander Graham Bell himself believing the technology had a bright future. But Bell found just enough believers to make his vision come true. With two backers, he founded the Bell Company, splitting shares among seven people at the time of its debut. The following years saw his invention spread far and wide, and the purchase of the Western Electric Company to secure the hardware supply chain. Then came the expansion out of the Northeast and the creation of what today is a multi-billion-dollar telecommunications firm.

On this day, March 3, in 1885, the American Telephone and Telegraph was formed as a subsidiary of the Bell Telephone company. Its purpose: to build and operate long distance lines throughout the country.

Seven years later, the first such line was completed, between New York and Chicago. That was the maximum distance the electrical signal could travel without amplification, but the limitation soon gave way as AT&T developed a means to amplify and pass on the signal, allowing it for the first time to connect any major city on the West Coast to any major city in the East.