Western Union has taken of 451st position in the rating Fortune 500 in 2009, having moved from 473rd line in 2008. In the 30's of the twentieth century, Western Union has become the world's largest telegraph company. In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Most service points of Western Union work in the time convenient for customers throughout the week and throughout the year. July 3, 1884 the company's shares were included in the calculation base for the newly created stock index Dow Jones Transportation Average. By 1861 Western Union telegraph lines entangled the whole America. It's time to explore Europe. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide.