Canada's Tentative List

Heart’s Content Cable Station Provincial Historic Site, Newfoundland and Labrador

The Heart’s Content Cable Station is an exceptionally well-preserved monument to the world’s first successful trans-oceanic submarine telegraph cable in 1866. This Cable Station, together with its sister site in Valentia, Ireland, were the respective western and eastern termini of the grandiose mid-19th century plan to connect North America and Europe via an 1886 nautical mile submarine telegraph cable. The successful trans-Atlantic telegraph cable between Heart’s Content and Valentia represents one of the major milestones in global communications and the birth of globalization - the ability to instantly and accurately communicate between the old and new worlds resulted in global altering commercial, political, military, media, and social impacts. These cable stations are the complete surviving testament to the outstanding genius and perseverance behind this remarkable scientific and engineering feat, which many at the time believed to be impossible.

The World Heritage criteria that best support this site are:

• (ii) The Heart’s Content/Valentia Cable Station ensemble are outstanding monuments representing the remarkable advances in communication technology during the mid to late 19th century, which were quickly and widely proliferated globally, and the immediate and subsequent outstanding influences on communications between countries and continents.
• (iv) The Heart’s Content / Valentia Cable Station ensemble is a well preserved and outstanding example of a telecommunications site representing the technological achievements of the mid to late 19th century which resulted in a significant stage in human history – the ability to instantly and accurately communicate between the old world and the new.