Cornelius Vanderbilt Research Paper

Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of America’s leading Business tycoons in the early 18th century. Many believed his genius and success as a businessman was contributed to his ability to seize upon opportunities that appeared unexpectedly. Some even thought that because Vanderbilt was so successful, he had planned everything in advance. Born poor , Vanderbilt had used his obvious aptitude for business, and luck to amass his empire, involving himself in the steam engine, both on land and sea. He tried and succeeded in connecting the railway to create a very large monopoly over the railroad system during his lifetime. Being involved in transportation, this was very important because transportation was the most important and lucrative business
Gibbons and Vanderbilt charged substantially less than competitors did, and it soon became the leading ferry service on the busy Philadelphia-New York City route. From 1818 to 1829, this partnership amassed a large fortune. The partnership was ended due to Vanderbilt’s desire to start his own passenger and freight service on the New York City-Peekskill Hudson river route. Using his top strategy for competition, he charged less money for better services and quickly annihilated the competition. Expanding further to Albany, NY, then further into the long island sound, and the Connecticut areas. By 1840, Vanderbilt had an enormous fleet of 100 steamships, and was the largest employer in the United States 6. At this point, Vanderbilt not only competed on the basis of price, but on the basis of comfort, speed, size, luxury and elegance in the passenger steamship industry.

As the California gold rush came into full swing in 1849, Vanderbilt began to provide a steamship service to San Francisco by the way of Nicaragua. Similar competitors used the much longer panama route, but going by the Nicaragua route, Vanderbilt cut two full days off the trip, making it 600 miles shorter 7. This portion of his business netted him over one million dollars per year. Today,
He became increasingly interested the railroad industry, which at the time was still in infancy. Vanderbilt studied the existing railroads, which at the time were a “labyrinth” of little disconnected roads 10. and decided, instead of building new railroads, he would just buy up the existing railroads, while also purchasing significant railroad stock. He acquired the long island railroad followed by the New York and Harlem Railroad and the Hudson River railroad. In 1867, Vanderbilt gained the central railroad and connected and merged it with the other railroads he had originally purchased 11. Vanderbilt continued to shut out his competitors with his infamous way of providing improved service, while cutting and maintaining low fairs to attract the most customers, eventually ruining others involved the business. He then continued to buy up the other railroads whom he forced out of business. Eventually he merged all of his railroad property into what was known as the New York Central Railroad. This connected a direct route between New York and Chicago. The estimated profit he made in the first five years of his railroad endeavor is around $ 25 million 12. Ultimately it was the biggest industry, railroads allowed the industrial economy to boom in ways it could not have before, this was the key factor in the rise of