This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show,

including your stories, send them to Our American Stories.com.

There's some of our favorites.

Up next, here's Greg Hengler with a story of how time zones came to America.

What time is it?

It's a seemingly easy question, but depending on what time zone you live in, your time will be different.

The development and spread of the railroads across the United States in the 1800s brought

a wave of changes to American life.

It's a heroic chapter in American history, but the most interesting transformation is

least known.

Each town in the United States had its own time, depending on when the noonday

sun was directly overhead. Here's American popular science author Stephen Johnson.

So you know what it's like taking a train ride today, you can kick back, read a book,

listen to some music, But imagine what it would

have been like in 1870 trying to take a train. Let's say we're traveling from New Haven to

New York. And so I get on the train at 12 o'clock New Haven. And it takes us two hours to get

to New York. So we should be arriving in New York at 2 o'clock. But in fact, in New York time, that's technically 155.

But the train we're on is actually running on Boston time.

So that means we're actually pulling into the station in New York on Boston time at 2.17.

But then we're like making a connection to a train to Baltimore that's running on Baltimore time at 217, but then we're like making a connection to a train to Baltimore

that's running on Baltimore time. So that train is actually leaving the station at 207, which

seems to be in the past. I mean, you have to be a math major to figure out what time it is.

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