In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Western Union offers one of the easiest ways for families and friends to send money and stay connected almost anywhere in the world. In the 80's of Nineteenth century, Western Union was repeatedly tried capture by the railroad tycoon Jay Gould. He worked with Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the first phone. In October 2006 the company made an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming independent from First Data company. 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. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. In 1849, Selden and Sibley, the founders of the future Western Union, created the New York State Printing Telegraph Company. The Western Union Company uses the most up to date technologies and its unique worldwide computer network that allows to carry out quick money transfers payments in more than 190 countries around the world. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.