Cornelius Vanderbilt

An American businessman who began as a Staten Island ferry operator before building a dominant steamboat business on the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, earning the nickname the Commodore, and later oceangoing steamship routes during the California Gold Rush era. From 1863 he turned to railroads, acquiring the New York and Harlem, Hudson River and New York Central lines and consolidating them in 1870 into the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, one of the first giant corporations in American history; he also built Grand Central Depot, completed 1871, as its Manhattan terminus. At his death his fortune, an estimated 105 million dollars, made him one of the wealthiest Americans of his era.