The First Tycoon by T.J. Styles

6.5 out of 10

After growing up on a farm on Staten Island, Vanderbilt started working in Manhattan. Adopting new technology, he found that owning a fleet of steamboats was a profitable way to transport people and cargo throughout New York harbor and along the Atlantic seaboard. Expanding his empire to locomotives and a vast network of railroads made the Commodore one of the wealthiest men in the history of the world.