Historically speaking:

How railroads created time as we know it

by Rebekah Bovenmyer

So my sister and I are a little bit addicted to American Idol. A couple of days ago I wanted to call her after the show and speculate about who should get booted and who I hoped wouldn’t. I live in Iowa: Central Standard Time. She lives in Washington: Pacific Standard Time.

The show is on at 7:00 in both of our time zones. But if I want to talk to her without revealing anything, I need to wait until it’s 10:00 my time to call her.

Whew, that’s complicated! Where did time zones come from anyway? Who decided there should be a two-hour time difference between my sister and me?

Well, it turns out it was the railroads. In the 1800s railroads crisscrossed the U.S. delivering goods and passengers. Each city had its own time, determined by when the sun was directly overhead at noon.

Now imagine you were waiting for a train that was supposed to come at 12:00. If you lived in Chicago, the train would be right on time. But according to Lawrence Reed, president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, if it was noon in Chicago, it would be 12:31 in Pittsburgh. If the train was running on Pittsburgh time, you’d be pretty upset in Chicago.

Trains could also crash if they weren’t carefully timed to miss each other.

So in 1872, when the railroads met to create passenger schedules, they decided to do something about this crazy time difference.

As trains moved across the country, they had several places where new crews would take over the trains. These major stops became the boundaries for the new time zones the railroads came up with.

On November 18, 1883, the railroads created time zones that were accepted by most cities and states. They created these time zones without approval from any city, state, or national government.

Because the railroads were such a vital part of life during that time, almost everyone decided to set their city clocks and watches by the new railroad time.

And that’s how the railroads changed time as we know it. Now I just need to watch the show and wait a couple hours to share my predictions with my sister.

A time zone map courtesy of the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Geological Survey.