Commodore Vanderbilt

"Modern Colossus of Roads" by Joseph Keppler in Puck, 12/10/1879
Harlem Lane, C & I 1870
"Alice in Plunderland" by Frederick Opper, 1903
Breakers, 1904
William Kissam Vanderbilt, 1906
Vanderbilt Cup won by French, 1908

1794 - Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on Staten Island, in a family that traced its ancestry to Dutch setters on Long Island in the 1600s.

1812 - During the war he bought ships to supply government troops in New York, then entered the coastal trade, built steamboats for Thomas Gibbons after 1818-24, then began his own steamship business that made him a millionaire by 1840, and he became known as the "Commodore."

1850 - He built a transit route across Nicaragua to transport passengers to the California gold mines.

1859 - He founded the the Atlantic and Pacific Steamship Company and built a railroad across the Panama isthmus.

1862 - With a fortune of $20 million, he began buying New York and Harlem railroad stock, and added to his holdings to create the New York Central line by 1872, with the world's first continuous four-track railroad between Albany and New York.

1873 - Built the Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

1877 - Upon his death Jan. 4, the Commore left a fortune of $104 million, equal to the U. S. Treasury at that time. His son William Henry Vanderbilt inherited $90 million and became president of the New York Central. His eight daughters inherited only $4 million. Before he died, he endowed Central University in Nashville with $1 million, and it became Vanderbilt University.

1878 - William Henry built a mansion on Fifth Avenue and began the world's largest prvate art collection.

1879 - William Henry sold 250,000 shares of railroad stock to J. P. Morgan to avoid a rate investigation by the government; in 1881 he sold his shares in the Western Union Telegraph Company.

1880 - William Henry paid $100,000 to move the obelisk gift from Egypt to Central Park.

1885 - Upon his sudden death Dec. 8 of cerebral hemorrhage, William Henry Vanderbilt left $10 million to each of his 8 children. His two oldest sons William Kissam and Cornelius ran the New York Central system until Cornelius died 1899, and by 1903 William turned control over to J. P. Morgan and the Pennsylvania Railroad.

1888 - George Washington Vanderbilt, the youngest son of William Henry Vanderbilt, built the Biltmore mansion in Asheville, NC.

1893 - The Breakers was built at Newport, RI, for Cornelius, and upon his death in 1899, was the home of his wife Alice, and in 1934 was given to his youngest daughter Gladys who had married Count Szechenyi. In addition to daughters Gladys and Gertrude, Cornelius left four sons: William Henry II died in 1892 at age 22; Cornelius III died in 1942; Alfred Gwynne died 1915 on the Lusitania; Reginald Claypoole died 1925. Reginald's daughter Gloria Vanderbilt was born 1924 and became a successful clothing and fashion designer after 1971.

1895 - William Kissam defended the America's Cup with his yacht Defender, was active in horse racing.

1896 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, the third son of William Henry Vanderbilt, built the Hyde Park mansion.

1904 - William Kissam began the Vanderbilt Cup, the nation's oldest major trophy auto race.

1907 - William Kissam financed construction of the 48-mile Long Island Motor Parkway that was used for the Vanderbilt Cup race until 1911.

1918 - William Kissam supported hospitals and the YMCA in WWI and funded the Lafayette Escadrille, and was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor by the French.

1920 - William Kissam Vanderbilt died July 22.



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revised 2/1/07 by Steven Schoenherr | Grand Central | Industrial Revolutionaries