Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr.

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Cornelius was born on May 27th, 1794 Staten Island, New York, U.S.A. His father Cornelius and his mother Phebe (Hand) Vanderbilt were very poor at the time. His family moved to Stateri Island, N.Y.. Cornelius Jr. had 9 siblings. He didn’t go to school every day and by the age of 11 he dropped out to work with his father on a ferry, that shipped cargo from Staten Island to Manhattan. He bought a small sailboat at age 16, and he immediately started to ferry people from Stateri to Manhattan. Other boys at his age made fun of him for this, they called him “Little Sailor Boy” and other names like that. Little did they know that during the Civil War he would have more money than the U.S Treasury.

Early business

At the start he charged $0.25 for a round trip. His first year he made a little over a $1,000. During the war of 1812 he contracted from the U.S. government, he supplied six army forts lining the Upper Bay. The next year on December 19th 1813, he married his 1st cousin Sophia Johnson. By 1817 he was worth over $10,000 and had 5 vessels that shipped from Boston to Delaware Bay. Along with a ferry business, Cornelius partnered with Thomas Gibbons. At the time, Gibbons was breaking one of the state monopoly rules, so Vanderbilt pulled out of the partnership before he could get in trouble. However, Vanderbilt bought many ships from the partnership with Gibbons before leaving.

Getting bigger

By the year 1820, Vanderbilt was ruling over the mid-Atlantic routes. At this time he started shipping on the Hudson River, where he went head-on-head with Daniel Drew. At this time Daniel Drew ruled on the Hudson River shipping, whom Vanderbilt later bought out. Vanderbilt (a.k.a The Commodore) by the late 1840s was worth over 1 million dollars. In 1864 at 70 years of age Vanderbilt retired from shipping business worth over 30 million.

Railroad

After he retired he wasn't finished yet because, the thing he is famous for, if not most famous for, is building Grand Central Station in New York City. At the time it Grand Central was used by the richest of the rich and was considered the fanciest building in New York. It took many years to build and millions of dollars and many man hours. Vanderbilt also constructed a whole city around Grand Central, but in the 1930s most of the buildings surrounding Grand Central were torn down. If you ever get a chance to see Grand Central and the remaining buildings, you will notice acorns and leaves carved into the buildings. That was because Vanderbilt's favorite saying was “From tiny