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Cornelius Vanderbilt - School Essays

Cornelius 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 ...

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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 States at the time. By the time he was 40, Vanderbilt's fortune exceeded 500,000 dollars, but he was still looking for new opportunities. During the 1849 gold rush, Vanderbilt offered an overland route across the isthmus of Panama that saved 600 miles and this got him over 1 million dollars a year. By 1853 he was making money so quickly that he took the first vacation of his entire life. He built a steam yacht, the North Star, and toured Europe, before he went he resigned presidency of the Accessory Transit Company. He dabbled in Atlantic passenger ships but found them to be unprofitable and he sold all but the one named for him, for ...

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Cornelius Vanderbilt. (2008, February 27). Retrieved January 12, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Cornelius-Vanderbilt/79713

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 2/27/2008 07:20:01 PM
Category: Biographies
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 544
Pages: 2

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