American mail relay service that carried messages from Missouri to California in 10 days using horse relays — operating for only 18 months before the transcontinental telegraph made it obsolete — but which became one of the most celebrated entrepreneurial and operational achievements in American frontier history.
Demonstrated that through careful system design (relay stations, lightweight riders, fast horses) a seemingly impossible logistical challenge (10-day coast-to-coast delivery) could be achieved — and then was immediately obsoleted by a more efficient technology, making it the canonical example of disruption.
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