Show standard time T ime zones officials of the large railroads in the united states met in 1883 to discover some method of establishing a time system that could be universally adopted by all american railroads previously all roads had used different systems the railroad men adopted a system based on the idea that 24 standard meridians should be established 15 degrees apart in longitude starting from the meridian of greenwich england and extending around the globe an international ter conference on standard time meeting in washington in in 1884 made the same recommendation men dation to the countries represented since that time the four time zones eastern central mountain and pacific have been used in this country |