Cornelius Vanderbilt - Carson Dunaway

 Carson Dunaway

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

4/12/2022

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was so ridiculously rich in the late 1800s and early 1900’s that he was one of the most wealthy men in America. So how did Cornelius Vanderbilt become so rich? Well, Cornelius Vanderbilt made generally all his money off of shipping and owning very large amounts of railroad tracks that reached from the East coast to Chicago, and to Illinois. However more importantly it would be too easy to just say Cornelius Vanderbilt simply own railroads and shipping when he did more than just that. Cornelius Vanderbilt had an amazing talent for recognizing up-and-coming changes and trends. Thus being very susceptible to changes and knowing what the next big idea was he became a great investor. This is what Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors to strike deals in his favor and make lots more money. In 1834 Cornelius Vanderbilt was turning 40, and owned over 500,000 dollars which was so much more money back then due to monopolization which was also allowed back then. Cornelius Vanderbilt used a lot of his money to invest in long-distance travel/ railroads, and the California gold rush. When investors heard the word of gold being spotted in California Cornelius was one of many to try and make a fortune from it. So what did Vanderbilt do to profit from this? Vanderbilt noticed that there were two ways in which one could transport gold. Both ways cost lots of money to transport and were very dangerous trips. Vanderbilt decided that he would make a much faster route for only half the price. This route would be known as the Panama Canal. 

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