Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was an American businessman who built one of the largest fortunes of the nineteenth century, first in steamship shipping and then, from the 1860s onward, in railroads. Starting with a single boat ferrying passengers around New York harbor, he expanded into a steamship empire that undercut established competitors on major coastal and transatlantic routes, earning the nickname "Commodore." Late in life he shifted his focus to railroads, consolidating several competing lines into the New York Central Railroad and building Grand Central Depot in New York City as its terminus, methods that made him a pioneer of the corporate consolidation strategies later industrialists would also employ. At his death he was likely the richest man in the United States, and part of his fortune endowed Vanderbilt University, which bears his name.