Did you know that postal inspectors . . .
- had a hand in establishing the first post roads. U.S. Route 1 began as the original mail route between Boston and New York;
- monitored the transport of mail on stagecoaches, steamboats, and railroads;
- were the first federal agents to be issued Thompson-sub-machine guns—the “Tommy gun”—while guarding railway mail in the 1920s;
- secured the transport of the nation’s gold reserve to Fort Knox and the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution;
- enforced anti-obscenity laws since 1873 and continue to play an integral role in enforcing the Child Protection Act of 1984; and,
- included some of the first women hired as federal law enforcement agents.
