On May 24th, 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse electronically transmitted the message "What hath God wrought?" While it took him many years, Morse was finally able to receive a grant that allowed him to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. The telegraph would go on to revolutionize the world's communication.

Like the popularization of the railway in England, the telegraph helped to decrease distance across the continent. We see the difference even within two novels both written in the Victorian Era--Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. In Bronte’s novel, set in the 1820s, Jane is dependent largely upon mail via stagecoach for her information and correspondence. Needless to say, sending letters across a long distance using the stagecoach could take a while. On the other hand, we see Robert Audley in Braddon’s novel receive messages from the likes of Clara Talboys almost instantly via the telegraph. Importantly, Braddon’s novel is only set about forty years later than Bronte’s. The nature of the telegraph enabled Robert to be a more quickly active protagonist who could be up and following another clue that would help him solve his mystery at a moment’s notice. For Jane, on the other hand, communicating with anyone who lived at any sort of distance was a more painstaking process. Not only did she have to carefully write out her messages with an actual pen and paper, but a letter could only be delivered so quickly as the stage could travel.

The telegraph allowed people across great distances to communicate with one another in a more instantaneous manner. Thus, vast continents seemed to decrease in size as people miles and miles away from one another could give each other important information quickly. In fact, the telegraph helped bridge the gap across the ocean itself in Morse’s own lifetime.

Sources: 

"Invention of the Telegraph." Library of Congress Digital Collection. https://www.loc.gov/collections/samuel-morse-papers/articles-and-essays/...