The Telegraph

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Historic sites · Year: 1883

In 1882 the State decided to establish a telegraph cable between Cádiz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Previously there had been great controversy over where the cable should be landed: Las Palmas or Santa Cruz; all framed within the so-called "island dispute". After many debates and discussions, it was finally decided to install it in Santa Cruz, largely thanks to the fierce defence by the civil governor of the Canary Islands province at that time, José Joaquín Pérez de Rozas. 

The telegraph cable from Cádiz was finally landed at La Jurada, north of Santa Cruz. From there a connection was established with the capital, more specifically with number 16 Cruz Verde Street, a building that housed the telegraph centre. From La Jurada a junction was also made to Las Palmas and another that, along the coast of Los Silos, reached Santa Cruz de La Palma.

The installation was inaugurated on 6 December 1883. For this reason the city held a great festival that lasted three days. Calle del Castillo was decorated with ten triumphal arches improvised by entities and societies and in La Candelaria square a bandstand was erected where the first telegram received from the peninsula was displayed.

But the service did not work as well as expected. In the years following its launch, communications were frequently interrupted because the cable constantly broke. In 1908 a new cable arrived at Regla beach, although by that date the new wireless telegraphy technology was already being considered.

In this regard, since 1907 the Ministry of the Navy had been studying a network of radiotelegraph stations between the peninsula, the Canaries and the Spanish possessions in Morocco. Its implementation was entrusted to the Marconi company, which sent two of its engineers to Tenerife in February 1909. In November a plot of land was acquired south of the city where four large metal towers for radiotelegraphy were erected, entering into operation in 1911. Now disappeared, these towers gave their name to the neighbourhood where they were located.

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