It's also mentioned in The Idea Factory; the head of Bell Labs and most AT&T leadership had "secret schedules" where they visited DC to receive orders and transmit information.

Abraham Lincoln had the nations' telegraph wires all terminate in a room in Washington DC, get received and inspected, then retransmitted. That was 150 years ago.

considering that the first line in the states was built from DC to Baltimore [0] I find this a bit like the comments that 70% of the worlds internet goes through Northern Virginia[1]. If part of the technology was invented in a specific area where a large group of people had knowledge then that is the reason why it is a central point of crossing (termination)

[0] http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/reform/jb_reform_morsecod_... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulles_Technology_Corridor

> comments that 70% of the worlds internet goes through Northern Virginia[1].

Funnily, 70% of the internet also goes through Frankfurt (DE-CIX, largest IX globally).

The 70% number is also the most commonly made up number for made up statistics, of which there are many.

The Feds' ability to acquire signals has not changed. Their ability to process signals has changed drastically.