Saturday, November 6, 2010

Daylight savings Time: How time flies! Where to see the world's clocks

Image: Big Ben

Watching the hours fly by from London's Big Ben to NYC's Grand Central

Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at 2 a.m. Sunday morning when we “fall back” to standard time by turning our clocks back one hour. As you reset the clocks on the microwave, the TV and the bedside alarm, imagine yourself watching time fly in one of these clock-worthy cities.

                                                    Iconic Ben Ben (right) is a London landmark.

Image: Clock at Grand Central Terminal

New York City's Grand Central Terminal

  • For decades, the clock over the information booth at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal has served as both easy-to-spot timepiece and iconic meeting point. Like all clocks at Grand Central, the 1913 four-sided, ball clock is set by the atomic clock in the Naval Observatory in Bethesda, Md., and is accurate to within 1 second every 20 billion years. But the information booth clock is not just accurate; it’s extremely valuable. “The ball clock has been valued at between $10 and $20 million dollars,” said Metro-North Railroad spokesperson Dan Brucker, “That’s because every face of that four-faced clock is made out of a precious jewel: opal.”

    Where to watch this clock: Grand Central TerminalImage: Waldorf-Astoria clock

  • The intricately carved bronze clock at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City was originally a gift from Queen Victoria to the United States for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

  • Standing nine feet tall and weighing in at two tons, the clock has an octagonal base made from marble and mahogany and is decorated with animal sculptures, plaques displaying sporting scenes and portraits of Ben Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria and other historical figures. Chimes, identical to those heard at Westminster Cathedral, play every 15 minutes. And according to hotel tour guide and historian Karen Stockbridge, a copy of the French-made Statue of Liberty was added to the top of the clock by the hotel in 1897. “The English were upset that we put a French statue on an English clock and tried to ask for it back,” said Stockbridge.

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