Vanderbilt and the Gilded age

Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in New York in 1794. At a young age he showed perseverance and other traits of a successful entrepreneur. In 1817 Thomas Gibbons hire Vanderbilt to operate his ferry in New York waters. it was at this time when a monopoly was held on the waters by another man who ran his ferry named Ogden. thus created the Gibbons Vs. Ogden case. While he was running Gibbons ferry he learned the operations of operating and running a business, he took these skills and started his own ferry business that would soon become a very powerful business in which competitors didn't stand a chance against. With his success in the ferry business he was able to become head of managing of the connecting of railroads. He went on to make the New York, Boston, and Providence railroad. Because of his extreme wealth and influence he was asked by president Lincoln during the Civil War to donate his Biggest steamboat to be used in the war. At the end of his age he became a philanthropist, one of his most know donations was to build the Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. His legacies will remain as not only as one of the wealthiest people in US history but as a leading businessman in american history.