within a year or two after his marriage, and with this capital he
began his career in the transportation business. From his first
ferrying project he engaged in other undertakings and laid the
foundation of his subsequent fortune in steamboat navigation.
About 1860, at an age when most men are beginning to retire from
active affairs, the "Commodore"--as he was called on account of
his numerous fleet--entered actively into the field of railway
development, management, and consolidation. The extraordinary
character and genius of the man are well depicted by the events
of the years that followed.

Before the opening of the Civil War and until immediately after
its end, the New York Central and the Erie systems were
controlled by bitterly antagonistic interests. These interests
were beginning to foresee the day when extremely aggressive
competition would call into play their greatest energies.
Vanderbilt, wiser than his generation, foresaw more than this.
His vision took in the vast future values of the properties as
developed trunk lines, and the greater possibilities of their
control and operation as a consolidated whole. He was in a very
real sense the forerunner or pioneer of the great consolidation
period of a half century later. He was the Harriman and the Hill
of his day.

The Erie had its own approach to New York City, but the New York
Central was connected with the metropolis only by the river and
the two independent roads--the Harlem Railroad and the Hudson
River Railroad. To get the latter two roads under his complete
control was Vanderbilt's first object. He would then have
unimpeded access to New York and so become independent of the