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.