“Hot Line” to Europe

“Hot Line” to Europe. Acadia National Park. , A US Navy radio station here at Otter Cliffs served as the most important World War I facility for receiving transatlantic messages – including the first bulletin about the armistice. Alessandro Fabbri, a wealthy island resident and inventor, built the station and offered it to the federal government in exchange for a commission as its commanding officer. The station remained in service into the 1930s when John D. Rockefeller Jr. successfully lobbied to relocate the facility to the Schoodic Peninsula so he could extend the Ocean Drive section of Park Loop Road., With its isolated site and a clear span across the ocean, Otter Cliffs served as a major link in the “hot line” between President Wilson and General John Pershing in Europe. , “In order to prevent further bloodshed German government requests immediate conclusion of a general armstice [sic] on land water and in the air.” , Message received at Otter Cliffs from German government to President Woodrow Wilson, October 6, 1918. , Timeline: Military Facilities in Acadia , 1853 US Coast Survey Triangulation Station placed on Cadillac Mountain summit. , 1917 US Naval Transatlantic Radio Station commissioned at Otter Cliffs. , 1918 Seawall long-range radio transmitter set up in the nearby village of Manset. , 1918 Otter Cliffs station receives first message from Kaiser Wilhelm to President Wilson concerning armistice. , 1934 Otter Cliffs site dismantled; Seawall facility transferred to US Coast Guard. , 1935 US Naval Radio Station at Winter Harbor, Schoodic Peninsula, commissioned. , 2002 Winter Harbor Station transferred back to the National Park Service. Now used as Schoodic Education and Research Center.