Obtaining control over several railroads between Chicago and New York, he would go on to create a large interregional railroad system. Cornelius’s foray into railroads was perfectly timed, as railroads were just beginning to grow into the logistics network that we know them as today. However, it was the famed railroad business that the Vanderbilt name came to be forever associated with. Far faster than the alternative routes, he would earn more than $1 million (about $26 million in today’s money) from this route alone. The peak of his shipping success was during the California Gold Rush, where he created a steamship service that took prospectors from New York to California through Nicaragua. His clever and aggressive attitude earned him the nickname “Commodore” as well as a fair share of enemies. Cornelius would work with his father on the boat as a boy, then aboard his own periauger as a teen, before getting his own small fleet of boats and learning about ship design.Īfter a brief stint as a ferry captain, Vanderbilt would go on to his first major business success in the 1820s, building steamships and operating ferry lines across the New York region. While his father was a farmer, the elder Vanderbilt also ferried produce and merchandise between Staten Island and Manhattan aboard a two-masted sailing vessel called a periauger. The tale of the Vanderbilts in business begins with Cornelius Vanderbilt, a descendant of Dutch settlers who was born to humble beginnings on Staten Island, New York. How this happened is a complex tale spanning several generations. And yet, for all that the Vanderbilts have accomplished, the true Vanderbilt fortune has been lost. At its peak, the family had more money than what was held in the U.S. With a fortune rooted in the birth of the country’s Gilded Age, the family name conjures up thoughts of lavish lifestyles and shrewd business success. The Vanderbilt family has earned their place as one of the great financial dynasties in American history.
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