1918

Time Zones - How they came to be.

Since people first began keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. As late as the 1880s, towns in the U.S. had their own local time, based on “high noon.” As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days to hours, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Efficient rail transportation needed a more uniform time-keeping system.

In 1883 American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power of the railroad companies.

Most Americans and Canadians embraced their new time zones, since railroads were their main link with the rest of the world. It was not until 1918 that Congress officially adopted the railroad time zones.