The Vanderbilts: The Founding Family of Extravagant Wealth

The Vanderbilt family started from humble beginnings. Cornelius Vanderbilt grew up with limited education and this prompted him to start working with his father at the age of eleven. This early exposure to the world of business grew the entrepreneur to be resilient and go after what he wanted. After conquering the steamship business, at the age of 70 Cornelius sniffed out a new empire; the railroad. Stocks were going from $20 or less as the New York Stock Exchange mirrored the public's views on this form of travel. Previously, stations and trains ran on different timetables making travel unreliable. Cornelius' innovation of merging railroads, opened the country up to cross-country travel. This lessened the time between states and furthered trading. Cornelius Vanderbilt is also famous for building Grand Central Depot (now Grand Central Station) in New York City. Leaving the empire behind for his son, William Henry, who doubled the family fortune to $200 million. After such successes there can only be a downfall. Not knowing anything but wealth; the second and third generations played, spent and did not give too much thought to the family business that birthed their lavish lifestyle. This book looks at the the middle generations and their response to the wealth before looking at the modern day Vanderbilts (Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper) who have made further names for themselves and made money on their own.