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Quick Facts
- NAME: Cornelius Vanderbilt
- OCCUPATION: Entrepreneur, Philanthropist
- BIRTH DATE: May 27, 1794
- DEATH DATE: January 04, 1877
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Port Richmond, Staten Island, New York
- PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
- Full Name: Cornelius Vanderbilt
- AKA: Commodore Vanderbilt
Best Known For
Cornelius Vanderbilt was an industrialist in railroads and shipping. He had accumulated the largest fortune in the U.S. at the time of his death, in 1877.
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Gloria Vanderbilt - Full Biography
Gloria Vanderbilt, the "Jeans Queen," has endured seven decades of fame, starting when she was at the center of an ugly custody battle and dubbed America's "poor little rich girl."
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Play NowCornelius Vanderbilt. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 04:28, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195.
Cornelius Vanderbilt. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Cornelius Vanderbilt." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 04:28 http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195.
"Cornelius Vanderbilt," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Cornelius Vanderbilt," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Cornelius Vanderbilt [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Synopsis
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, in the Port Richmond area of Staten Island, New York. He began a passenger ferry business in New York harbor with one boat, then started his own steamship company, eventually controlling Hudson River traffic. He also provided the first rail service between New York and Chicago. When he died in 1877,
Vanderbilt had amassed the largest fortune accumulated in the U.S. at that time. Vanderbilt is deemed one of America's leading businessmen, and is credited for helping to shape the present-day United States.
Early Life
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, in Port Richmond, Staten Island, New York. Although destined to be one of America’s first tycoons, Vanderbilt grew up poor, watching his illiterate father, Cornelius Vanderbilt Sr., toil away as a seaman. Following the death of one of his eight siblings, Vanderbilt, at age 11, dropped out of school to work for his father. His early days in a boat sparked an interest in the sea, which he pursued by studying all aspects of the shipping business.
When he was 16, Vanderbilt earned $100 landscaping his father’s land and used the money to purchase a sailboat. He began a passenger ferry business in New York Harbor with one boat, then started his own company ferrying people and dry goods between Staten Island and Manhattan. Known as a skilled sailor who would routinely undercut his competition, Vanderbilt’s business grew. During the War of 1812, he was awarded a military contract to provide supplies to forts along the Hudson River.
Success at Sea
The rise of steamboat travel was a threat to Vanderbilt, whose sailboats couldn’t possibly provide the same level of reliability and cheap fares that customers were now demanding. Not willing to watch his business decline, he sold his sailing vessels in 1817 and got a job operating a steamboat for Thomas Gibbons, ferrying passengers from New Jersey to Manhattan. In his mid-30s at this time, Vanderbilt went into the steamboat business for himself. Once again, customers flocked to his service, with its cutthroat rates and new vessels. Vanderbilt’s ability to steal away customers was so great that competitors paid him to leave the Hudson river. In his wake followed a growing reputation as a robber baron.
By the mid 1840s, Vanderbilt was operating a fleet of more than 100 steamboats. He was also worth several million dollars. He parlayed his success into ventures in Central America and, in 1855, began overseeing a transatlantic steamship business.
Success on the Rails
In the 1860s, rail travel began to grow in the United States and, once again, Vanderbilt seized the opportunity by purchasing railroads in New York. Following the same business model he's used with his previous ventures, he made his mark by improving service and offering customers low fares. After only five years in the railroad business, Vanderbilt reportedly made $25 million.
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Captains of Industry
View groupAmerica wasn't discovered, it was built. At the end of the Civil War, America was seen as a failing experiment in democracy; a nation fraying from the inside and at war with itself. Just 50 years later, the United States was the greatest superpower the world had ever seen. This landmark transition was due in no small part to a group of business-savvy, innovative young men: John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan and Thomas Edison. These men constructed a bold vision for a modern America and transformed the greatest industries of our time, including oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobiles and finance; they are unequivocally America's first captains of industry.
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