This was a fun book. One story I remember from this book was that working a telegraph was a full time job. And there was a decent amount of downtime, so they had sort of their own subculture, chatting, playing chess over the wire, etc.
This book was truly excellent. Shows the precursor network triggering similar benefits and harms to its successors. Also a great narrative that recalibrated my sense of how significant technology develops. It took a long time, with many detours and many players.