50 Facts About Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt, nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping.

Cornelius Vanderbilt provided the initial gift to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Cornelius Vanderbilt began working on his father's ferry in New York Harbor as a boy, quitting school at the age of 11.

At the age of 16, Cornelius Vanderbilt decided to start his own ferry service.

However, according to the first account of his life, published in 1853, the periauger belonged to his father and the younger Cornelius Vanderbilt received half the profit.

Cornelius Vanderbilt began his business by ferrying freight and passengers on a ferry between Staten Island and Manhattan.

On December 19,1813, at age 19 Cornelius Vanderbilt married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson.

When Cornelius Vanderbilt entered his new position, Gibbons was fighting against a steamboat monopoly in New York waters, which had been granted by the New York State Legislature to the politically influential patrician Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton, who had designed the steamboat.

Cornelius Vanderbilt moved with his family to New Brunswick, New Jersey, a stop on Gibbons' line between New York and Philadelphia.

Cornelius Vanderbilt proved a quick study in legal matters, representing Gibbons in meetings with lawyers.

Cornelius Vanderbilt went to Washington, DC, to hire Daniel Webster to argue the case before the Supreme Court.

That year he faced opposition by a steamboat operated by Daniel Drew, who forced Cornelius Vanderbilt to buy him out.

Impressed, Cornelius Vanderbilt became a secret partner with Drew for the next thirty years, so that the two men would have an incentive to avoid competing with each other.

On November 8,1833, Cornelius Vanderbilt was nearly killed in the Hightstown rail accident on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey.

In 1834, Cornelius Vanderbilt competed on the Hudson River against the Hudson River Steamboat Association, a steamboat monopoly between New York City and Albany.

Cornelius Vanderbilt bought large amounts of real estate in Manhattan and Staten Island, and took over the Staten Island Ferry in 1838.

In 1852, a dispute with Joseph L White, a partner in the Accessory Transit Company, led to a business battle in which Vanderbilt forced the company to buy his ships for an inflated price.

When Cornelius Vanderbilt returned from Europe, he retaliated by developing a rival steamship line to California, cutting prices until he forced Morgan and White to pay him off.

Cornelius Vanderbilt then turned to transatlantic steamship lines, running in opposition to the heavily subsidized Collins Line, headed by Edward K Collins.

In November 1855, Cornelius Vanderbilt began to buy control of Accessory Transit .

Cornelius Vanderbilt took control of the company just before these developments were announced.

Cornelius Vanderbilt sent a man to Costa Rica who led a raid that captured the steamboats on the San Juan River, cutting Walker off from his reinforcements from insurgent groups in the United States.

Cornelius Vanderbilt had little choice but to lease it to the War Department, at prices set by ship brokers.

For donating the Cornelius Vanderbilt, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

Cornelius Vanderbilt paid to outfit a major expedition to New Orleans.

In 1863, Cornelius Vanderbilt took control of the Harlem in a famous stockmarket corner, and was elected its president.

Cornelius Vanderbilt later explained that he wanted to show that he could take this railroad, which was generally considered worthless, and make it valuable.

Cornelius Vanderbilt brought his eldest son, Billy, in as vice-president of the Harlem.

Once in charge of the Harlem, Cornelius Vanderbilt encountered conflicts with connecting lines.

Cornelius Vanderbilt bought control of the Hudson River Railroad in 1864, the New York Central Railroad in 1867, and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in 1869.

In 1869, Cornelius Vanderbilt directed the Harlem to begin construction of the Grand Central Depot on 42nd Street in Manhattan.

Cornelius Vanderbilt sank the tracks on 4th Avenue in a cut that later became a tunnel, and 4th Avenue became Park Avenue.

In 1868, Cornelius Vanderbilt fell into a dispute with Daniel Drew, who had become treasurer of the Erie Railway.

Cornelius Vanderbilt used the leverage of a lawsuit to recover his losses, but he and Gould became public enemies.

Cornelius Vanderbilt paid $50,000 for a church for his second wife's congregation, the Church of the Strangers.

Cornelius Vanderbilt died on January 4,1877, at his residence, No 10 Washington Place, after being confined to his rooms for about eight months.

At the time of his death, aged 82, Cornelius Vanderbilt had an estimated worth of $105 million.

Cornelius Vanderbilt gave Corneel an extra $200,000 in cash and a trust fund of $400,000.

Cornelius Vanderbilt willed amounts ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 to each of his daughters.

Cornelius Vanderbilt's wife received $500,000, their New York City home, and 2,000 shares of common stock in the New York Central Railroad.

Cornelius Vanderbilt embraced new technologies and new forms of business organization, and used them to compete.

Cornelius Vanderbilt helped to create the corporate economy that would define the United States into the 21st century.

Cornelius Vanderbilt's descendants were the ones who built the Vanderbilt houses that characterize the United States' Gilded Age.

In 1999, Cornelius Vanderbilt was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame, recognizing his significant contributions to the railroad industry.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was buried in the family vault in the Moravian Cemetery at New Dorp on Staten Island.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was later reburied in a tomb in the same cemetery constructed by his son Billy.

One of Cornelius Vanderbilt's great-great-granddaughters, Gloria Cornelius Vanderbilt, was a renowned fashion designer, and her youngest son, Anderson Cooper, is a television news anchor.

Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt was childless when he committed suicide, in 1882, and George Washington Vanderbilt died during the Civil War, before having any children.

All of the Cornelius Vanderbilt multimillionaires descend through the oldest son Billy and his wife.

Cornelius' youngest grandson through William, George Washington Vanderbilt II, built the 250-room Biltmore Estate in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, as his main residence with part of his inheritance from his grandfather.