Cornelius Vanderbilt

Anne Vanderbilt: Three Husbands, Four Children, and One Sutton Place

February 23, 2026 by Randall Whitestone 1 Comment

On July 22, 1920, with his wife, daughter, and two sons at his bedside, railroad tycoon and financier William Kissam “Willie” Vanderbilt I, grandson of the legendary Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, died in Paris at the age of 70. His widow soon set out to make a new life for herself. For the third time.

Anne Harriman Sands Rutherfurd Vanderbilt (1861 – 1940) had a knack for choosing husbands and an independent, public-minded spirit – in the words of author Alfred Allan Lewis, “a dutiful Victorian daughter, who, through successive widowhoods, married better and better.” But a simple gold digger she was not. [Read more…] about Anne Vanderbilt: Three Husbands, Four Children, and One Sutton Place

1871: The New Grand Central Depot at 42nd Street & Fourth Avenue, Manhattan

September 24, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

What follows is a July 15, 1871 Scientific American article about the opening of Manhattan’s Grand Central Depot, a predecessor to the current Grand Central Terminal, built on the site of a previous 42nd Street Station. This structure was later expanded and became known as Grand Central Station before its final reincarnation as the current Grand Central Terminal in 1913:

Among all our large commercial buildings, the railroad depots are those of which New Yorkers have least cause to be proud. Discomfort, shabbiness, and dirt, concentrated in ill-ventilated structures, have generally hitherto been all the accommodation to the public that our railroad kings have seen fit to give. [Read more…] about 1871: The New Grand Central Depot at 42nd Street & Fourth Avenue, Manhattan

Albany’s Livingston Avenue Railroad Bridge: Some History & Future Plans

September 3, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

This article was original published in the July 6, 1867 Scientific American.

Our engraving [presented here] represents this structure [the Livingston Avenue Railroad Bridge in Albany] as it appeared in March, 1866, which was shortly after its completion. [Read more…] about Albany’s Livingston Avenue Railroad Bridge: Some History & Future Plans

Great Camp Sagamore: The Gilded Age Meets the Great Outdoors

May 21, 2025 by ADK Taste Leave a Comment

The latest episode of the ADK Talks podcast uncovers the rich history of the iconic Adirondack Great Camp Sagamore, once the private getaway of the Vanderbilt family in Raquette Lake, and explores the intriguing blend of luxury and nature, shaping a unique legacy of rustic elegance in Upstate New York. [Read more…] about Great Camp Sagamore: The Gilded Age Meets the Great Outdoors

The Steamboat Lexington Tragedy in Long Island Sound

April 4, 2023 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

On a frigid night in January 1840, the luxury steamboat Lexington burned and sank in the middle of the Long Island Sound with over 140 people on board. What followed were harrowing tales of survival, tragic deaths, and a media sensation that dominated the headlines for months. [Read more…] about The Steamboat Lexington Tragedy in Long Island Sound

Death By Fire And Ice: The Steamboat Lexington Calamity

November 13, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In January 1840 the steamboat Lexington left Manhattan bound for Stonington, Connecticut, at four o’clock in the afternoon on a bitterly cold day carrying an estimated one hundred forty-seven passengers and crew and a cargo of, among other things, baled cotton.

After making her way up an ice-encrusted East River and into Long Island Sound, she caught fire off Eaton’s Neck on Long Island’s north shore at approximately seven o’clock. The fire quickly ignited the cotton stowed on board. [Read more…] about Death By Fire And Ice: The Steamboat Lexington Calamity

Wall Street History: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Gould, and Morgan

January 31, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

The period after the Civil War was one of significant economic and technological expansion in the nation and one in which corporations headquartered in Lower Manhattan and Wall Street would obtain a significant hegemony over the American economy.

This was a time in which individual entrepreneurs were running private businesses located on Wall Street. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Gould, and Morgan

Sex, Suffrage, Scandal in Gilded Age New York

April 28, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York Almanack contributor Bill Greer‘s new book A Dirty Year: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in Gilded Age New York (Chicago Review Press, 2020) looks back to a time of rigged elections, everyday shootings, and attacks on the press, to sexual impropriety, reproductive rights, and the chasm between rich and poor.

As 1872 opened, the New York Times headlined four stories that seemed symptomatic of the decay in public morals that the editors so frequently decried: financier Jim Fisk was gunned down in a love triangle; suffragist and free-love advocate Victoria Woodhull was running for US President; anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock battled smut dealers; and abortionists were thriving. [Read more…] about Sex, Suffrage, Scandal in Gilded Age New York

The Railroad Wars of New York State

October 7, 2012 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York’s railroads were born of the cutthroat conflict of rate wars, bloody strikes and political graft. The railroad wars began as soon as the first line was chartered between Albany and Schenectady when supporters of the Erie Canal tried to block the new technology that would render their waterway obsolete.

After the first primitive railroads overcame that hurdle, they began battling with one another in a series of rate wars to gain market share. Attracted by the success of the rails, the most powerful and cunning capitalists in the country—Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Daniel Drew and other robber barons—joined the fray. [Read more…] about The Railroad Wars of New York State

Cornelius Vanderbilt

We Need Your Help Now More Than Ever

New York Almanack receives no public funds.

It’s supported only by readers like you.

Please give today (a monthly recurring gift is best)