What Happened to the Vanderbilt Fortune? The Real Math

Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877 as the richest man in America, with an estate of about $105 million. What happened to that money? This video follows the numbers: how the fortune was built, how it was divided, and the arithmetic that took it apart over four generations. Where accounts disagree or the record is thin, I say so. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 01:21 A boy and a ferry 03:54 From water to gold 05:22 Rails 07:06 The will 09:02 William Henry 10:46 The building boom 14:10 Flat 16:17 The next generation 17:20 The houses 19:08 The engine stops 20:27 The reunion 21:46 The real math SOURCES (starting points; estimates and disagreements between sources are labeled in the video) Cornelius Vanderbilt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Va... The Vanderbilt family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderbilt_f... William Henry Vanderbilt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henr... Cornelius Vanderbilt II: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Va... Alva Vanderbilt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alva_Vanderbilt Biltmore Estate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltmore_Estate The Breakers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Breakers Gloria Vanderbilt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Vande... New York Central Railroad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Cen... Consuelo Vanderbilt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consuelo_Van... Vanderbilt University archives, 1973 family reunion collection: https://collections.library.vanderbilt.edu... Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt (1989) IMAGES All images are public domain or CC0 archival material, including collections of the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rijksmuseum, via Wikimedia Commons. A full credit list is available on request. Paper Fortunes: the real math of great fortunes. New videos every week. Found an error? Tell me in the comments with a source and I will correct it in a pinned comment. #Vanderbilt #GildedAge #History