CORNELIUS VANDERBILT

EARLY LIFE

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• Born in Staten Island
• Worked at fathers ferry
• Quit school at age 11
• married his first cousin

STEAMBOAT ENTREPRENUER

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• Worked for Gibbons until 1829
• Always had side business
• At this point he worked all alone
• Started lines between NY and surrounding areas

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• 1834
• Competed on Hudson River Vs. a steamboat monoply
• "The Peoples Line" used to gain support from Democrats
• At the end of the year the monopoly paid him to stop competing
• He moved operations to the Long Island Sound

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• Vanderbilt dominated business on the sound
• started to take over the managment of connecting railroads

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• 1840's he made a campaign to take over top lines
• New York, Providence, and Boston Railroad
• Took over presidency of company in 1847

RIVALRIES

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• He had large amounts of real estate
• Took over Staten Island Ferry in 1838

In the 1830's he was first called a "commodore" The

• The highest rank in the Navy
• A common nickname for top steamboat entrepreneurs
• It stuck with only him by the end of the 1840s

CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

• began in 1849
• Vanderbilt switched from regional steamboat lines to ocean
• Started a steamboat line to Nicaragua
• Founded the Accessory Transit Company to carry passengers

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

TOOK OVER MORE RAILROADS

LEGACY

• Vanderbilt named after him
• gave largest charity donation ever at time
• Inducted into North America Railway Hall of Fame
• fortune estimated at 100 million
• built a railroad empire

WORKS CITED

• New Netherland Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. .
• History. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. .
• Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. .
• US History. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. .