Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of the most successful men in the railroad business. After the Transcontinental Railroad was finished Vanderbilt purchased and merged three New York railroads, this lead to him to extend his control out to Chicago within 4 years. In 1871 Vanderbilt began constructing The New York Grand Terminal. Before 1880 each community set their clocks by the position of the sun at noon. This lead to collisions and unsafe rides for passengers because two trains traveling on the same track could lead to collisions. So to keep this problem from happening again the American Railway Association divided the country into four time zones in 1883 which the government ratified in 1918.