Map of the internet precursor ARPA network as of May 1973 – David Newbury
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/10/29
Today’s internet day anniversary only started in 2005. But the networks leading to the internet are a lot older and date as far back as the late 1960s. In fact [WayBack] Internet Day, October 29th refers to the first ARPA network communication taking place in 1969.
About two years ago, David Newbury published this piece of history from 1973: a map of the ARPA network (later called ARPANET).
[WayBack] David Newbury: “Going through old papers my dad gave me, I found his map of the internet as of May 1973. The entire internet. https://t.co/0krvYoRGav”
The resulting thread has loads of more interesting pictures which I tried to save in the Wayback Machine as not even Wikipedia seems to have them.
It also includes a discussion on the meaning of the zig-zag line to Hawaii, the connection to London (UK that is, not USA) later that year and even earlier state of the late 1960s.
Worth reading (:
Here are some references to messages and links from the Twitter thread:
- Cleaned EPS version – [WayBack] Layne Harris: “@workergnome Here’s a scalable, EPS (vector) version for you! https://t.co/LUdVK71YF1”
- [WayBack] ARPANET – Wikipedia with ARPANET map of the state in March, 1977
- [WayBack] History of the Internet – Wikipedia
- [WayBack] UCL networking history
- December 1972 map: https://tools.ietf.org/pdf/rfc432.pdf via [WayBack] jomo: “@workergnome here’s a similar one from 1972: https://t.co/8DDm6ppBXv”
- [WayBack] Miguel Ponce de Leon: “@workergnome Hi David here’s another mP I’ve come across from September 1973 with an International link to London. https://t.co/9uMjBTS5oU”
- [WayBack]: Alex Petrov: “@workergnome @jonmatonis The Arpa network 1969. https://t.co/MbtZaS8Icw”
- [WayBack] Lee Copeland: “@workergnome @gojkoadzic This is what it looked like when I was at Utah. https://t.co/bZKyq1rnAO” (cleaned up picture of 1969)
- [WayBack] Deane Barker: “@workergnome @Crell I have this too, which are the original nodes in December 1969, when it went live. https://t.co/okVGnjYiGC” (map of the launch in 1969, with four ARPA Network nodes at UTAH, SRI, UCSB and UCLA)
- [WayBack] Jacob Wisner: “@workergnome @paulcoxon Found this picture of one of the computers on that map (Sigma-7 off UCLA) – https://t.co/foOL4VCAzI”
- [WayBack] Cory Wagner: “@workergnome @bitfield here’s a pic I took at the Newseum in DC last month https://t.co/nKjqGDBufW” (on the state in 1969)
- [WayBack] Greg Parker: “@cbee @workergnome @siracusa TIPs and IMPs are the network routers. https://t.co/Wn0KEyq4N2”
- [WayBack] CB : “@gparker @workergnome @siracusa Correct? -> TIP = Terminal Interface Processor, used to provide terminal sessions on ARPANET”
- [WayBack] CB : “@gparker @workergnome @siracusa Interface Message Processor (IMP)=packet switching node used 2 interconnect participant networks 2 ARPANET”
- [WayBack] Deane Barker: “@workergnome @Crell I have this one, which might pre-date it. https://t.co/2hZGwfgUYQ”
- [WayBack] Internet Day, October 29th
via [WayBack] Well, that’s changed quite a bit in the meantime https://twitter.com/workergn…
–jeroen
The original nodes in December 1969, when the ARPA Network went live.
The ARPA Network, December 1969
The ARPA Network, date unknown. via Deane Barker
ARPA Network, logical map, September 1973
ARPA Network, logical map, June 1974
a
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Leave a Reply