Everything is relative. Today, when we have probes on Mars that send information back to Earth, a few thousand kilometers is no big thing. Then again, if you're walking, a few hundred kilometers can definitely wear out a pair of shoes, not to mention exhaust the walker. It was on this day, 101 years ago, that the first (North American) transcontinental phone call was made. It was a festive event, with Alexander Graham Bell in New York and his former assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco reenacting their first telephone conversation from 1885. Bell played his part, saying:
Mr. Watson, come here, I want youto which Watson then replied:
It would take me a week nowClearly Watson wasn't intending to walk, since it would take considerably longer to cover the 4675 kilometer distance between the two cities by foot. Of course we don't traverse it by foot today. If it's physical travel it's primarily by plane, and if it's "only" information that's making the trip it travels via internet packets - and 5000 kilometers is no big deal. Still, there's reason to recognize, and perhaps even celebrate, what was once a very impressive achievement.