Florida wire thieves, target shooters, careless drivers and hurricanes won't have Bell System open wire toll lines to pick on any more.

The last major Southern Bell toll line route in Florida, which ran between Jacksonville and Valdosta, Georgia, was recently dismantled and replaced by a modern cable carrier system. The only open wires to be found now are two single crossarm routes which serve as back-up for a West Florida toll cable.

Maintaining the Jacksonville - Valdosta route over the years was not an easy chore. Toll lines placed near highways were often victims of auto accidents. Storms leveled sections at times, isolating towns from any outside contact. A continuing repair problem through the years was the hunter who couldn't resist making a target of glass insulators on open wire routes. And with the rise in the price of copper, the miles of wire on toll lines had to be watched closely in recent years (not to mention the people taking insulators, too). Thieves frequently chanced stealing large quantities of wire, even though the first snip of cutters would send an alarm to the toll test board.

The Jax - Valdosta toll line was built in 1906 and was rebuilt in the 1920's to hold more circuits. The 1920's were very prosperous times, and many hundreds of miles of lines were rebuilt and modernized with the newly popular Hemingray 42 and similar styles. The job was to change from 25 to 35 foot poles, to enlarge the route to six crossarms, and increase to 60 wires.

Linemen who built toll lines were highly specialized in the early 1900's. They were traveling crews and lived and worked out of train cars.

Even in those days, Ma Bell was finding ways to make the most of the network. By precise transpositions of the copper lines at designated points, "phantom circuits" could be utilized. This meant that, in addition to the 30 two-wire circuits on a toll line, 288 phantom circuits would carry conversations.

When the line was installed, it cost $5,000 per mile, including poles, arms, wire and land costs. At today's prices for wire alone, the cost would be over $37,000 per mile!

Now that construction forces have completed dismantling the over 30,000 crossarms and more than 7,200 miles of wire, what has become of the 300,000 glass insulators? The only sign of the 120 mile toll line are the poles leaving Jacksonville on U.S. 90, which carry a cable. The higher capacity cable and microwave facilities now serving the route will provide increased quality and dependability.

Aerial or underground cable seems to be the trend today, especially in Florida. "Put it underground as soon as possible." A crew of good linemen can dismantle several miles of a major toll line in a matter of days. It takes poles, arms, pegs, insulators, wire and other assorted hardware to put up a line. The theory of "what goes up, must come down", also applies to telephone lines. The problem of what to do with the "junk" can be solved in several ways. Generally, the poles are stripped, and everything is hauled off to the dump. Usually the nearest city or county facilities will do. However, many wrecking contractors can be more enterprising than this. Poles can be cut up and sold as cordwood, crossarms sold for fence posts, and copper wire sent back to work center high value containers. This leaves the problem of what to do with the insulators. Leave them on the crossarm, sell everything to a farmer, and let him worry about it. Sometimes he would put up his fence, insulators and all, or he would dump them on his "back forty", and they may still be there today, just for the asking. More energetic line crews would remove the insulators from the crossarms and dump them back in the hole and throw some dirt over the top. Most experienced insulator collectors can tell you this. Get yourself a bottle probe and start searching. Once the first hole is found, pace off the distance in a straight line and feel around for another. Many insulators can be found this way; however, it won't be too long before all trace of the old line will disappear. Some sporting linemen will compete in who can throw the insulators the farthest from the top of the pole. Check bushes in the vicinity for any stray pieces and stray snakes. Hurling an insulator any distance does wonders to the glass and generally makes them look "used". A few good items have been found this way, even on a line already "picked over". According to N. R. Woodward, a glass factory is paying 1.5 cents each to recycle glass insulators. What next? Whatever the method, there are still insulators to be found. They are getting scarce, and one must look hard, or be very lucky.

The open wire facilities became part of the landscape in the late 1800's and were used for local and long distance service. The old toll lines served well, but it's easy to see how a coast-to-coast call in those days was described as a "ten dollar holler". In the early 1900's, landowners welcomed news of a planned toll line route because it represented progress. Now these open-wire facilities have been dismantled -- again for progress.

(Portions of the above, excerpted from the Sunscriber, July, 1974, an employees' publication for Florida, Southern Bell.)