Compare And Contrast The Men Who Built America

Cornelius Vanderbilt: Captain of Industry When America began its journey into industry, the country immediately flourished. Inundated with immigrants, factories were easily staffed; jobs were given out to any individual who wanted one. However, some of these large industrial companies flourished more than others. Cornelius Vanderbilt, for example, became one of the richest men in the country. Many Americans believe that business owners like Vanderbilt should be given the name “Robber Barons” because of their great accomplishments; however, in contrast, others like to deem them as America’s “Captains of Industry”.

Zack Spira 10/16/14 Study Skills Mr.Allison In the late 1800s not too many business owners became wealthy and took control of industries. Andrew Carnegie's parents were poor immigrants from Scotland and began to work their way up to be business leaders. Carnegie built the largest steel company and created a monopoly.

Once he left, he dedicated most of his time to the steel industry, later resulting in his business called the Carnegie Steel Company which revolutionized steel production in the U.S. From this he started to build plants around the country, using technology and methods that made it faster and more efficient to manufacture steel. This made him a very wealthy man and he continued this for a few more years. Carnegie used a system of vertical integration to maintain his market dominance. Vertical integration is essentially the merging together of two businesses that are at different stages of production. This is when a company expands its business operations into different steps yet on the same production path; an example would be when a manufacturer owns its supplier and/or distributer.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius V. helped with railroad transportation, he was known as being the largest steamship operations in his country. In the 1860’s he built an empire, this empire helped with railroad transportation. Before he built an empire he decided to focus on the railroad industry. Before he worked on railroad transportation he was a steamship captain. Cornelius had a very illiberal personality also known as a competitive person.

Vanderbilt was an american business magnate and philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. He also had a university called vanderbilt university. He began to engage in boating. When he was young he developed a love for water and quit school and started working for his father. Once he turned sixteen he persuaded his mother to give him $100 dollars for a boat.

Railroad tycoon and businessman, Cornelius Vanderbilt was a self-made millionaire in the 19th century. As a businessman who set the path for others, Cornelius Vanderbilt was born into humble circumstances on May 27, 1794 on Staten Island, New York. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a captain of industry. To begin with, Cornelius set the path for other businessmen.

Andrew Carnegie: Road to Wealth and Success Seen as a robber baron, Andrew Carnegie may have toll advantage of his loyal employees and his relentless competition, his personal intentions and innovations within the steel industry and his philanthropic distribution undeniably changed America’s society and views of education. In the early nineteenth century, American industrialist were gathering good ideas through Carnegie’s innovations and initiative. When Carnegie started out onto the road to success and wealth, from rags to riches and earned his big reputation that he brought among himself. For the successful people who misused their employees and competition were inevitably labeled as “robber barons,” i.e. John D. Rockefeller.

What changed Vanderbilt to Railroads from Steamboats. “Vanderbilt entered the railroad business in 1857 and eventually gained control of the New York and Harlem Railroad—again besting his rival, Daniel Drew. “ He thought that because of the war that was coming, he needed to think of a new way to prosper and help the war effort. “During the Civil War, Vanderbilt realized that the future of transportation lay not on the high seas but on land.” He used many of the same strategies as he used in the steam boat industry, like being able to control the price of shipping using his trains.

This was the next big thing in America. The railroad transportation method exploded and everybody was seeking to do it. So Vanderbilt began

While holding this position, he invested in coal, iron, oil, and railroad companies, allowing him to become a wealth man by the time he was in his thirties. In 1870, Carnegie entered the steel business and over the next few decades he would build up the Carnegie Steel Company. His business model was centered around self-reliance from the mining of resources to the transportation of the finished steel. Pictures taken of Carnegie's factories in the year 1900 show his system of transportation, a railroad running through the factory capable of transporting Carnegie steel to market (Carnegie Steel Company 1900). In the year 1901, Carnegie sold his business to J.P. Morgan for more than four hundred and eighty million dollars, making him the richest man of his day ("Andrew Carnegie").

In the prime years of the 1800’s railroads and canals played a great role in improving the U.S. Railroads and canals help industrialize the U.S.; making it easy to import and export goods globally. The development of railroads was one of the most important spectacles of the Industrial Revolution. Canals were man-made rivers which were deep enough to deal with ships which were capable of moving nearly forty tons of weight. Economic expansion spurred the building of canals to speed goods to market. The railroads and canals brought an economic change to the country because it made trading resources between states and other countries easier.

He used his boat to ferry passengers and goods between Staten Island and Manhattan… Selling his ferry business, Vanderbilt went to work for Thomas Gibbons in 1817, running a steam ship line between New York and New Jersey. Over 12 years, Vanderbilt became an expert in the operation and design of steam ships. He 1829, he resigned to launch his own business… He sold his interest in steamers and turned to Wall Street, the financial heart of the nation in New York. In a short period of time, he quietly bought up a number of railroads to form the New York Central and Hudson River line, one of the largest businesses America had ever seen.

the second industrial revolution saw the development of many new innovations and technological advancements that brought a wave of economic success upon the United States during its emergence in the late 19th century. During this time, there were developments of coal, steel, railroads, telegraphs, chemistry, electricity, corporations, and consumerism, among other business innovations such as mass production. One of the many innovations were railroads, which had finally been established in the United States. The shipment of goods on trains, as opposed to canals, allowed businesses to be open year-round due to the new reliability of shipment schedules in any weather. Additionally, trains could carry up to 50 times the amount of goods at the same cost as shipping via canal, which was costly and inefficient, with no reliable shipment schedule.

Andrew Carnegie Once, there was a man to have the largest personal fortune in the world. He helped improve mankind by donating millions of his fortune to charity. This mastermind was named Andrew Carnegie, an industrial monopolizer who used steel to gain his massive fortune. Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland.

There was no stopping the forward progress of the railroads in the 1800s. Trains, even before the mid-century, went twenty miles per hour; that was twice as fast as the stagecoach and four times as fast as the canal boat. To the entrepreneur that meant one thing: profit. These profit-minded Americans wasted no time in laying down track in America. The Transcontinental Railroad was one of these important railroads contributing to trade and economy; it was connected by the Central and Union Pacific Railroads.