Cornelius vanderbilt
Cornelius vanderbiltCornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794. He was an American Steamship and Railroad builder as well as a financier and promoter. He was born to a poor family and he quit school at eleven. He owned his first business at age sixteen as a transport and freight service. By the war of 1812, the government was contracting him to supply forts around New York and the profits allowed him to build a schooner and two other boats for coastal trade. He became known as "the commodore" because he had the largest schooner on the Hudson River. By 1817 he had over $9000 to his name. He sold his company and went to Thomas Gibbons in 1818 to be part of ferryboat service on the Hudson. He charged less than a fourth of the going rate and was taken to court in Gibbons vs. Ogden where the supreme court nullified the monopoly New York had given to Fulton and Livingston. After that, Vanderbilt controlled most of the Hudson River shipping. He made himself and Gibbons a fortune. In 1829 he decided to start his own company and he met his biggest rival, Daniel Drew. Vanderbilt eliminated all his competition by lowering his prices to a mere 12 and � cent apiece. Next he challenged the Hudson River Association in the Albany trade and they paid him to go elsewhere. Vanderbilt continued to improve his businesses and his boats, adding luxury and comfort to all his boats, he launched the largest steamboat ever in existence in 1846 and it was named for him. By 1840 his company had more than 100 steamboats and more employees than any other company in the United...
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