Jackson Posey
Professor Jeffreys
Business
9/1/12

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in Staten Island, New York on May 27th in 1794. He started off his business in New York on a boat, then eventually upgraded to having his own steamship company controlling the Hudson River area. Vanderbilt also was involved with the railroad service from state to state. Vanderbilt managed to obtain the largest fortune in the United States during his time. He is considered one of America’s top leading businessmen and is presently referenced and talked about in United States today. Vanderbilt grew up very poor in his early years and worked for his father after dropping out of school at the age 11. Vanderbilt loved the sea so he found interest in the shipping business at a very young age. This made Vanderbilt very humble and determined to be successful and make money. His passenger ferry business in New York Harbor moved people and dry goods between New York City and Staten Island. Vanderbilt was innovative and hungry for the money so his business quickly grew and expanded. He was even awarded a military contract for providing materials and supplies to war forts along the Hudson River. In Vanderbilt’s mid thirties he went into the steamboat business to make some extra money. People complained heavily on Vanderbilt’s high prices and he gained a reputation as a crook. He was operation over 100 steamboats in the mid 1800’s. Cornelius Vanderbilt today is worth around 185 billion dollars.

Vanderbilt slowly began to migrate his business interests from shipping into railroads. He started off simple with the New York and Harlem Railroad then took control of a few others that connected New York to Chicago, Michigan, and Canada. Following the same business model as he did with his shipping industry, he made his fortune by improving service and offering the people low prices. After roughly five years in this railroad business, Cornelius