Public ownership of railroads, telephones, telegraph (jan 1, 1889 – jan 1, 1920)

Description:

Public ownership of railroads, telephones, and telegraphs in the United States has been implemented in various forms and at different times in different states and communities. There was no one specific time or place where public ownership of these industries was adopted across the entire country.
However, some notable examples of public ownership of these industries in the U.S. include:
Railroads: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many cities and states in the U.S. established publicly owned and operated street railways, or streetcars. Some of these street railways eventually expanded into larger systems that included interurban rail lines.
Telephones: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of cities and rural communities established publicly owned and operated telephone systems as a response to the monopolistic practices of private telephone companies.
Telegraph: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Western Union Telegraph Company, which had a virtual monopoly on telegraph services in the U.S., faced increased competition from publicly owned and operated telegraph systems in some cities and states.
(Location: Platform, Third; Platform, Transportation)

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