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| Like all good
tourist traps, Jekyll has its fair share of historical curiosities and footnotes. It was
here that the richest men in America created the Federal Reserve Bank. Hailed as a
sweeping reform, the FRB proved to be little more than a security blanket for the robber
barons. (Should we have expected anything less from Jekyll’s wealthy
cottagers?) |
Wall Street’s mavens arrived each winter to escape the world
around them, but technology inevitably followed the rich to their vacation paradise. The
first transcontinental phone call over public transmission lines was made between New York
and San Francisco by way of Jekyll Island. The slightly off-course routing of the call was
no accident. AT&T boss, Theodore N. Vail was sunning himself on the island when
inventor Alexander Graham Bell rang up his assistant, Thomas Watson. President Woodrow
Wilson listened in from the oval office. |
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| The earliest of
Jekyll’s notable events involved a slave ship called the Wanderer. Even
though emancipation was yet to come, the US banned the importation of slaves in 1856.
Despite the order, clandestine nighttime landings continued until the Wanderer wandered
off course during an 1858 storm, unexpectedly landing its ‘cargo’ on
the island. The smuggling cartel was exposed, ending the slave trade in the United States
for good. One last item of merit can
still be seen today. In the Faith Chapel, sunlight glimmers through a stained-glass
window. No ordinary window, this is one of only five in the world signed by its maker,
Louis Comfort Tiffany. Gazing upon this sublime masterpiece, the throngs of admirers turn
their backs (literally) on the chapel’s other treasure. Located above the alter,
David Armstrong’s window is the true centerpiece of Faith Chapel.
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