Andrew Carnegie

     Andrew Carnegie started working for Tom Scott when he was 12. Tom Scott soon grew to like Carnegie and he became Scott's personal assistant. He quickly advanced through the ranks and by 24, he becomes the manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Now when you think of Carnegie, you think of steel, but he worked on railroads before with Tom Scott. Started to work with steel when Tom Scott wanted him to build a bridge across the Mississippi River. Now at this time, this is a thought to be, a near impossible task. Bridges have been built, but like 1 in 50 collapsed or fell, and these were only a few feet across. The Mississippi River is a mile wide at the skinniest point. Carnegie took on the challenge against the odds still. He realizes, the only material strong enough and reliable enough to make his bridge out of is steel. By this point, people were thinking that Carnegie has gone mad because steel was incredibly hard to make and was only used for small things like silverware. So not only does Carnegie want to build a bridge a mile wide, but he also wants to make it out of steel. He starts looking around to

John D. Rockefeller

    John D. Rockefeller had a tough childhood. His father couldn't support their family and had a boring, cunning personality. Because his father couldn't support the family, as a young man, he started looking for ways to make big money like Vanderbilt. He realizes oil is the answer, but realizes that oil is risky. He decides to refine oil into kerosene because it isn't as risky. he invests everything into his oil refinery. He needs someone to transport his kerosene and Vanderbilt sees this as an opportunity to take over a business and sees Rockefeller as a person he can easily profit off of. Rockefeller misses his train and the train he misses falls of the bridge and takes this as a sign from God and becomes a man of destiny instead of being intimidated by Vanderbilt. He strikes an exclusive deal with Vanderbilt. Unfortunately, kerosene is getting a bad name, because of the high demand, other companies are rushing to make profits, therefore taking shortcuts and in turn making unstable, dangerous kerosene. Rockefeller sees this problem as an opportunity to become rich. He creates "Standard Oil" promising stable, good kerosene and it soon becomes the oil most Americans buy. Now, Tom Scott, Vanderbilt's biggest competitor, wants to strike a deal with Rockefeller, knowing this would make him king of the railroads. With this new deal, he starts buying other refining companies and when he's done, he owns 90% of all refineries in America. He becomes the most powerful man in the country at only age 33. Vanderbilt realizes he has created a monster and strikes a deal with Tom Scott to stop him. They form an alliance pulling all deals from Rockefeller. Rockefeller is determined to find another was to transport his oil and does. He realizes pipelines are his answer and uses pipelines. Thus, the railroads were left without anything to transport and make a profit out of. The stocks plummet and the stock exchange closes for 10 days, this is America's first depression.Over this time, Vanderbilt dies, so now Rockefeller's only major competition is Tom Scott. He shuts down all refineries in Pittsburg to crush Scott. This is a big blow to Standard Oil, but Scott loses almost half of all his cargo and has to lay off tens of thousands of workers. Scott is completely crushed. Then, electricity is brought to America and Americans are turning to electricity to light their homes. You would think Rockefeller would be put out of business, but right around this time Henry Ford starts making automobile powered by gasoline. And hey, what's the waste product of refining kerosene? Gasoline!

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Grand Central Depot

     Cornelius Vanderbilt was also known as "Commodore Vanderbilt", which means he owned more than one ship. When you think about Vanderbilt, you think of railroads right? Well, he started his empire with one ferry boat. He did business by fighting, and he was a tough guy, so eventually he owned many steam boats. He is like Andy Jackson, a tough guy who knows how to fight. Right before the Civil War however, he sold every single one of his steam ships. Now the normal person like you or me would defend and keep the ships with all of our power because we know there is a war coming up and everyone will need boats to carry supplies around. Vanderbilt however looked ahead into the future and realized that the era of steamboats was over, now it would be the beginning of the railroads. So with all of the money he gets from selling the steamboats, he invests it all in railroads. By the end of the Civil War, he has $76 million dollars which is worth $75 billion dollars today and becomes the richest man in all of America. Even though he achieved this, he is filled with grief for he lost his favorite son in the Civil War. He also wants more, he wants a monopoly of the railroads. This is why he is Robber Baron and not a Captain of Industry. He single handedly shuts down all trade from the largest port in the country, New York City by closing the Albany bridge, which he owns. This puts all the other railroads out of business and takes over them.He builds the Grand Central Depot in 1871. This enormous project takes over two years and covers 22 acres. After this he owns 40% of all train lines, but he is still not satisfied. He wants the Erie line, the most important train line. He tries to buy shares so he owns the majority of the company, but Gould and Fisk, the owners of the Erie line, knew this. They start printing stock which is a tactic called watering down stock. (This is highly illegal now) Vanderbilt spends over $7 million ($1 billion now) on useless stock before he realizes this. He was the first of the Robber Barons and dies at age 82.