Men Who Built America Notes.

Vanderbuilt.

16 he bought a small ferry boat 100 loan + becomes a sheer cut business
man. T
Tough and competitive defined his character.
His nickname became the commodore
Due to shipping over the next 40 years building ship industry.
He shells every ship + invests in all things railroad.
By the end of war, he is the richest man.
Has a net worth of 60 billion.
His son George died his empire was vulnerable.
Gave company to less accomplished son William.
Vanderbilt owns the largest port SoHo.
Closes bridges to eliminate competition.
Vanderbilt takes control of rival creating largest railroad company in America.
Grand central is biggest in New York City.
Station is 22 and toward over every building.
To complete the empire he had to gain control of the eerie.
Vanderbilt bought over 1 million dollars
Carnosine is Vanderbilts next opportunity.
Vanderbilt dies @ the age of 82.

Gould and Fisk

Printed fake stock which Vanderbilt continued to buy

Vanderbilt gave away 1 million dollars.

John D. Rockefeller.

Rockefeller is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Rockefeller respected Vander built.
Rockefeller is a man of destiny.
Rockefeller was raised in a poor Cleveland household.
As a young man he started selling his own candy business.
Never able to reply on his father.
Rockefellers father was a conman.
His worth ethic and intuition became the building blocks for the American
dream.
Rockefeller realized oil has the power to change the world.
Rockefeller knows there is a better way.
Struggles to find edge in the industry.
Named his company standard oil.

Rockefeller begins to buy out his competitors.

Wants to own every railroad refinery.
Rockefeller is the most powerful man in the country.
Builds 4,000 mile long pipeline on penssylvania network
Networth 225 million dollars.
150 million (richest man.)
Starts supplying iron to his competitors.
Negotiations last for months.
Gave away money to churches and universities.
Lived to be 97
In his 97 years he Gave 538 million dollars (100 billion.)
Standard oil is the countrys first monopoly.
Vanderilt makes a deal to ship kerosene at low rates to houses over the
country

Scott:

Wants to become king of the railroads

Makes an unlikely deal with Vanderbilt too not compete and raise prices on
Rockefeller.
Mentor of Andrew Carnegie.
Dies at age 57, after losing his railroad.
After he dies, Carnegie sets out on revenge on Rockefeller.

Andrew Carnegie.

His mentor tom scott dies (in defeat from john d

Rockefeller.)
No scott = he is nothing.
Worked as toms assistant @age of 12
Smart and ambitious.
By age 24 Carnegie is promoted to manager of company.
Getting across Mississippi river is way to success.
Invests everything he had into the bridge.
Tries to build traintracks out of steel.
Convinces public of steels strength.
Structural steel skyscraper.
America was being built using carnegies steel.
Workers started strike.
Frick highers pinkerton detectives.
Carnegie gives money to libraries, and and hall of
performing arts.
He dies at 83 ; 13 years before Rockefeller.

Becomes the first defense contractor by making steel

contract with u.s navy.
Frick:

henry frick was a self made millionare in the coal industry.

Carnegie rewards frick by making him chairman but he wanted more power.
He creates south fork fishing and hunting club.
The club owns one of the biggest dams and he ignores the towns plea to
strengthen the dam.
The lake was rising and inch every 10 minutes
Frick wanted the road bigger so he lowers the dam.
The towns people ignore the warning of the dam breaking
Most blame goes to frick and south fork club.

Jp morgan.
Banker who made a fortune consolidating industries.
Julius morgan (jp morgans father.)
Wanted to create an industry of his own.
Morgans event is a success.
Electricity becomes a must have
Edison develops dc electricity.
Morgan believes electricity could change our world.
There is no success without risk taking.
JP Morgan puts pressure on Edison.
Was smart and determined.
His partner Edison killed criminals.
Edison invents electric chair.
27,000,000 people came to their fair.
George westing house won power plant t.v.
Bought all of Edisons shares.
Company valued over one billion.
JP Morgan lost against Roosevelt.
Died in Italian city.

Tesla:

Edisons apprentice develops new type of electricity.

Tesla finds and investor for his idea, George Westing house.
Travels the country with his AC electricity.
Tesla gives Westing house his patent by ripping contract.
Westing house is drowning in debt and almost bankrupt.
Morgan plans to use this to his advantage.

Morgan gets westing houses patents by threatening him to going to court.

Brian:

Williams brains Jenkins gathers crows on people with low pay and log hours.
Starts to run for president and calls out Rockefeller.
Brian says he will not rest until theyre behind bars.
Put all focus behind another canidate William mckinly.
They each give 200,000 to his campaign.
The president turns out to be mckinly.

TR:

Theodore Roosevelt starts running for president and goes after big
monopolies.
Morgan and Rockefeller convince mckinly to put Roosevelt in the vice
president position.
The vp position has no power at the time.
Leon czolgosz kills president McKinley.
He was just fired from jp. Morgans u.s steel.

Harrison ford.

Created affordable vehicle for every day person.

Ford is hopeful hell be approved.
Cars could be an everyday item.
Ford is determined to be successful without alum.
Henry ford challenges owner to a race
Henry ford won against fastest man in America.
Rather than handcrafting he assembled by workers called assembly line.
Fords cars belonged to everyone
Model t for 825 dollars.
Paying products for the masses where paying minimum wage.