After becoming a shipping magnate in New York, the first Vanderbilt was not satisfied.
Then, taking advantage of the California Gold Rush, he opened a one-day steamship route from New York to California, which was popular because it greatly reduced travel time and cost.
Later, the Civil War broke out, and the Vanderbilts made their most successful investment. They supported the Lincoln government, transported Union soldiers by shipping, and made an indelible contribution to the unification of the United States.
After the unification of the United States, the Vanderbilts reaped the benefits of their political investment. They became a real transportation magnate, and on the basis of the original shipping resources, they also gained rail transportation resources.
At that time, he founded a railroad empire, the New York Central Railroad, which extended the Vanderbilt empire throughout the United States and gave him a monopoly on all railroads in and out of New York City.
Li Du read the news that when the first Vanderbilt died, he had accumulated a fortune of $100 million!
That figure may not seem like much now, but it was 1877, when the U.S. Treasury held less than $100 million in assets!
Later, the Vanderbilts encountered a situation similar to that of the Winston family. The heirs were like weasels laying mice, one nest worse than the other!
Cole's father was no match for his grandfather, and he was no match for his father. If it had not been for Li Du, Harry Winston would have had to change its name.
The second Vanderbilt was a conservative king. He had been in charge of the transportation empire for 20 years and made little progress, but he did not let the kingdom decline.
Later, when it came to his two sons, the situation started to get worse.
At first, his eldest son, William Kissam Vanderbilt, took over the company, but soon retired to focus his time and energy on his yacht and thoroughbred racehorses.
His younger brother, George Vanderbilt, did not like the transportation business, but liked real estate.
Real estate was a good business, but what he liked was not real estate for sale, but the constant construction of super villas for his own living.
For example, the Vanderbilt family built more than a dozen luxury buildings between 51st and 59th Streets in Manhattan. Among them, Building 1 on 57th Street had 137 rooms and was the largest building in the United States at the time.
Another example, the Vanderbilts also built a dozen luxury vacation villas, including Marble Villa, Soundwave Manor, Bilmore Manor, and so on.
Among them, Marble Villa was built by the third generation Kissam in 1888 and given to his wife Alva as a birthday gift in 1892.
The 50-room mansion cost $11 million to build, with $7 million spent on the marble alone.
When it was completed, its design and grandeur were unparalleled among American houses of the time, and its front porch is still often compared to the White House.
Built by Kisa's brother, Vanderbilt II, between 1893 and 1895, Soundwave Manor had its own merits, but it was much larger than Marble's, with 70 rooms and a livable area of 65000 square feet.
The scale of Marble Villa and Soundwave Manor was already very large at the time, but compared to the Bilmore Manor that took six years to build, it was a little insignificant.
Designed by a famous French architect, Bilmore Manor has 250 rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, a bowling alley, and an indoor swimming pool, covering an area of 178926 square feet …
Li Du could not imagine how luxurious these villas were. What was the point of building so many large residences?
In short, these buildings showed the dominance of the Vanderbilt family. Not only that, but the family also donated money to build a university, called Vanderbilt University.
According to media reports, after entering the 20th century, the Vanderbilt family was content to enjoy life, the transportation empire business continued to shrink, and the family's wealth gradually shrank.
However, there were also reports that the Vanderbilt family's wealth did not shrink because of the decline in business. On the contrary, they spent a lot of their wealth in unknown ways, resulting in less money to develop the transportation business, causing the transportation empire to shrink step by step.
In these reports, some said that the fourth generation of the Vanderbilt family was keen to find extraterrestrial civilizations and ancient treasures around the world, burning a lot of wealth in this area.
Some reports said that the Vanderbilt family's wealth had not shrunk much, but that they were just doing this to avoid causing people to hate the rich and avoid being suppressed by the government.
In short, in any case, until now, the Vanderbilt family was still a very important family in the world, but they were very low-key and did not report much.
Li Du did not understand. Steve's surname was Tussenberg. How could he be related to the Vanderbilt family in New York?
Moreover, according to the report, the Vanderbilts were Dutch through and through, and Steve had some Jewish features on him.
Cole's information could not be wrong. Since he said that Steve was related to the Vanderbilt family, there must be a connection between the two sides. As for what the connection was, Li Du decided to go back to the villa first and explore later.
At about the same time, a police car stopped at the door of the villa, and a girl with a single ponytail got out. She was wearing a sandy-yellow police uniform, and her eyes were cold and fierce.
Seeing a stranger appear, the hounds, who had been hiding in the shade of the trees, jumped up and barked wildly at the door.
Sophie heard the dogs barking and smiled at Victoria, who was drawing. "Look, since we have dogs, we don't need electric bells anymore."
Victoria and Ivana nodded gently. When Sophie left, they looked at each other and quickly opened the drawing paper to take out their comic books.
Walking out of the villa, Sophie was pleasantly surprised. "Hi, Rose, hello. Why are you here?"
She went up to drive the hounds away. "Go away, go away, go away, go away, stop barking, this is a guest!"
The hounds did not listen and continued to bark at Luo Qun.
Sophie saw the four little ones still hiding in the shade and shouted, "Take them away, quickly!"
The four little ones got up and barked a few times, and the hounds bowed their heads and went back to the shade.
When Luo Qun entered the door, the other three little ones, except for Ali, looked at each other with sinister eyes.
They thought of the suffering of living under the same roof as Luo Qun, the fear of being dominated by the violent girl, and thought of a way to get back at her!
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