History of Time Zones and Daylight Saving Time (DST) | Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Official websites use .govA .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( LockA locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Data spotlights represent data and statistics from a specific period of time, and do not reflect ongoing data collection. As individual spotlights are static stories, they are not subject to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) web standards and may not be updated after their publication date. Please contact BTS to request updated information. Before the establishment of time zones in 1883, there were more than 144 local times in North America.1 The resulting time differences between adjacent towns and cities were not critical when it took days to travel from place to place.2 With the proliferation of railroads, faster travel became possible across large geographies