In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. July 3, 1884 the company's shares were included in the calculation base for the newly created stock index Dow Jones Transportation Average. In 1864, fearing the laying of long underwater lines, Western Union offered to carry out laying of telegraph lines to Europe through the Russian Alaska under the narrow Bering Strait and then to Siberia with branching in the major cities of Europe. You do not need to open a bank account, so you can send or receive money in any of the 170 000 service points of Western Union around the world. To obtain the Golden card can any client of Western Union, committing money transfers on this system more than 1 time per year. Getting the card is issued at the time of making of the next transfer. Western Union incomes for 2007 have made $4,9 billion US dollars, and the quantity of transactions has made 572 million. The first offices of company were located in the Reynolds Arcade building in Rochester, New York. The sign above the main entrance to the building - In 1856, in 7 years after the foundation of New York State Printing Telegraph Company, the company changed its name to Western Union Telegraph Company. In the 1910-1920 years. Western Union is actively engaged in researching, innovating in the field of data transmission. Sibley, the founder of Western Union, did not build a new telegraph lines, and persuaded the other players to join. American Telegraph Company, however, still had to buy it.