Cornelius Vanderbilt had started out in the shipbuilding business and when he reached 16 he had become a cutthroat businessman at the young age of sixteen due to his fleet of ships. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1864, Vanderbilt sold all of his ships and began investing in railroads and near the end of the Civil War his net worth was estimated $68 million dollars. In order to keep his power in the railroad industry, Vanderbilt had erected the world’s biggest blockade to prove his dominance in the railroad business. According to the documentary, The Men Who Built America, “The future of the industry isn’t building new lines but in transporting new cargo.” Vanderbilt thought that if he had new cargo to transport, he would solidify his
