The Connections Museum gives a one-of-a-kind look into the history communications in the United States.

Beginning with a replica of the very phone Alexander Graham Bell used to speak the immortal words, “Mr. Watson, come here! I need you!” to relatively contemporary phone booths that were once ubiquitous. The museum is located in an actual former switching station that is now Centurylink’s Duwamish Central Office. This allows the collection to encompass such monumental pieces of vintage equipment as huge banks of switching relays from across a number of eras. In addition to the larger relics of telecommunication, there are also a large number of period phones from across the 20th century and before.

The museum holds a special focus on the products of AT&T, a once monolithic communications company. The collection also features teletypewriters, telegraph equipment, radios, pay phones, and a fantastic library.

Possibly the most remarkable aspect of the Connections Museum is the fact that a good number of their phones and gear on display, still work. Cared for by  passionate volunteers, the machines on exhibit allow visitors to experience first-hand how telephone calls were connected in the era before computers.