A century and a half ago, the world suddenly became smaller when an underwater telegraph cable joined two nations divided by the sea. From that first link, a vast web spread across the globe.

Today another underwater web - a complex fiber-optic system - makes the world smaller yet, as the old becomes new again. Alive with a constant stream of information, these new connections form the nerves and sinews of the Internet. To be so busy and so still, so universally used and yet so hidden, are only two of the paradoxes that have marked the history of underwater cables.