After an early career in the paper business, Field became interested in a proposal to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable. He was one of the founders (1854) of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, formed to carry out the project. Two years later he helped organize a British company, the Atlantic Telegraph Company.

In August 1857 the first of several unsuccessful attempts to lay a cable were made. Success was finally achieved in July 1866, and Field was acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic.

Later he ventured into other enterprises. In 1877 he bought a controlling interest in the New York Elevated Railroad Company and for the next three years served as its president. Field also worked with Jay Gould in developing the Wabash Railroad and became the owner of a New York newspaper, the Mail and Express. Field suffered heavy financial losses, however, in his later years.