On November 18, 1883, at 12:00pm, railroad companies in the United States adopted Standard Railway Time, a new time system implemented for railroad operations. American cities quickly followed suit and enacted ordinances to follow the railroads. The time system split the continent into four time zones (Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern). Before this implementation, the time of day was localized and used some form of solar time. Railroad companies needed a way to have accurate times for ope