The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Opens Your Eyes
March 14, 2012-TCS # 291
So, this Past Sunday for those here in the US was a switch that I and many people hate known as Daylight Savings Time. You See, though I’m not sure if they have it in other parts of the world but, here in the US it happens every spring and fall. What happens in Daylight Savings Time is that in spring, we move the clock one hour forward and in the fall, we move the clock back an hour. In order for us to remember, they have the saying, “Spring forward, fall back” and yet it’s still a surprise to many people, especially this year. Even my Mom was surprised and exclaimed, “Sunday is Daylight Savings Time?!?” and I said, “Mom, it’s on the calendar”. Even though it’s on the calendar, mentioned on the news and weather and I’m prepared for it, I still hate it. Anyway, all this stuff with Daylight Savings Time and even Time Zones have to do with History. When I was in school, History wasn’t at all my favorite subject because I thought that History and my true favorite subject, Geography were very separate subjects. To me, History was all about the dates of when events occurred and Geography was all about where things are, maps, and direction but little did I know that History and Geography were tied together in different ways. I learned about the relationship of the two by talking with a friend of mine and watching a show on The History Channel called, “How The States Got Their Shapes.” There were 2 major things on this show that caught My Attention, one thing was about Time Zones and how the great City of Atlanta came about. The first thing I want to tell you about is why we have Time Zones. You See, back in the day (by that I mean, The 1800’s) people wanted a way to transport goods along with them selfs long distances. By the way, this was before roads and interstates were built. So they built railroads across the country. Now the schedules and the clocks were based on using the sundial and as the railroad network started to grow, the trains began to go off schedule and not arrive or depart on time. For example, the train would leave at let’s say 12 Noon on The Sun Dial from Los Angeles and didn’t arrive until 6 p.m. on the sun dial 3 days later in New York City when it should have arrived earlier. So, in response to the inaccurate schedules, Congress created 4 Time Zones across the US. They are the Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones. After the creation of Time Zones, the trains finally got on an accurate schedule and that’s why we have Time Zones. Next thing I’m going to tell you is how Atlanta was built and why it has a big flaw in its design. You See, back in the days of the railroad, as they built the tracks, the railroads met at a junction and so that the trains could connect to other railroads. So, when the railroads coming from 4 different directions with the end of a rail line leading to the Midwest, they built a city around the junction known as Atlanta, Georgia. Little did they know that the once small railroad meeting town would burn to the ground and regrow into a thriving metropolitan area. The city now has roads going every which way and having some of the worst traffic. Now that brings to the 2 fatal flaws of Atlanta, both of which they live with today. The first and most important is that the founders of Atlanta didn’t know that it was going to be such a big city. This is true because the one important thing that they have but, don’t have enough of is a water source. I mean, I looked at the map (using Geography Sense) and found there are only 2 lakes in the area. They are north of Atlanta and the one being, Lake Lanier is Atlanta’s Water Source. So, what does this have to do with How Georgia got it’s shape? Well, it turns out that the original observers who drew the line between Georgia and Tennessee mistakenly drawn off by a mile because it was supposed to be drawn on the 34” degrees Longitude line. So, to this day, the government of both Georgia and Tennessee are fighting because of Water and it’s Sources. You See, if Georgia is correct, then they get some “Water Front Property” on the Tennessee River, bringing more water down to Georgia's capitol of Atlanta. Tennessee doesn’t like this because they feel Georgia is trudging on Tennessee’s Land and technically it’s the other way around because it was not drawn correctly. The next flaw, though it didn’t have a lot to do with History, but Atlanta lacks major thoroughfares. These allow traffic to go in and out of the city with greater ease. I mean they do have some but, not very many, which causes major traffic in the Atlanta area. All-in-all, as you can tell everything in Geography has something to do with History and vice-versa.
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Don’t judge History because it’s boring. It just has to be told in a way that makes it interesting.
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