Cornelius Vanderbilt — "The public be damned!"
The public be damned!
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More from Cornelius Vanderbilt
"I don't care what they say about me as long as they say something."
"I have never been afraid to challenge authority."
"I'll have more than Astor, by Christ!"
"I have no education, but I have common sense."
"Never tell what you are going to do till you have done it."
About Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)
American shipping and railroad magnate whose New York Central railroad and aggressive consolidation built the largest fortune in 19th-century America. Closely associated with John D. Rockefeller (later Gilded Age titan who learned the consolidation playbook). For an intellectual contrast, see Jay Gould, railroad speculator (1836-1892) — Vanderbilt built and ran railroads; Gould watered stock and manipulated markets. Their Erie Railroad rate-war and Gould's Black Friday (1869) gold-corner schemes were the public foil to Vanderbilt's quieter operational consolidation. The cleanest 'industrialist vs speculator' Gilded Age pairing.