Vanderbilt:

Tough, competitive, cut throat business man

Nicknamed the commodore
Builds the largest shipping empire in the world
Sells his ships, and invests all his money into Railroad Systems
Becomes richest man in America
His son died in war
His empire becomes vulnerable
Forced to rely on his less accomplished son, William
Commodore finds opportunity to teach his son how to be a Vanderbilt
Owns the only railroad to NYC
Forces the Alderman bridge to close (formed blockade)
Traps people on the train
Grew up poor
Leaving millions of pounds of cargo unable to be shipped
Hurting his competitors business
Other companies stock goes down
Vanderbilt buys all of this stock for $20 each
Vanderbilt takes control of the Rival Railroad
Providing over 180,000 jobs for railroads
The Harlem, The Hudson, and the Central (3 Railroad Systems)
Grand Central Station is the largest train station
Wants to gain control of the Erie Line: Railroad from Chicago to New York
Buys stock for the Erie Line
Gould and Fisk recognize his plan, and begin printing new shares of stock
They print over 100,000 shares, which decreases Vanderbilts power of Erie
Vanderbilt is unaware of this and keeps buying stock
Vanderbilt has bought 7 million shares of watered down stock from Gould and
Fisk
Vanderbilt finds out Gould and Fisk played him and he is pissed
Kerosene is Vanderbilts new idea
Notices the demand for it start to skyrocket, he wants to be the transport for
it
Learns about a refinery in Cleveland, OH
Meets the owner, John D. Rockefeller

Rockefeller:

Company is going bankrupt

Meets w/ Vanderbilt as a chance of a lifetime
Doesnt die on train, misses it
Has faith in God now
Meets with Vanderbilt
Rockefeller agrees to provide Vanderbilt with 60 train cars of oil per day

Rockefeller does not have that much oil

Grew up poor, worked for money
His father dies, he needs to provide for his family
Some dug for oil, others made refineries
Told Vanderbilt he can supply him with 60 barrels per day, when really he can
only provide less than 30
Rockefeller finds the need to calm people in the market
Rockefellers standard oil is the most popular product in the country
Americas new obsession= light
Oil is changing the world
Largest producer of refined kerosene in the country: Rockefellers standard oil
Tom Scott: president of railroads, wants to replace Vanderbilt
Tom Scotts business partner: Carnegie
Rockefeller makes a deal with Scott, not Vanderbilt
Rockefeller begins to buy out his competitors
He wants to own every refinery in the country
Wants a monopoly and maximum profit
Rockefeller controls 90% of the American oil supply
33 years old, most powerful man in country
Vanderbilt and Scott form alliance and plan to pull all of Rockefellers deal
Rockefeller needs to find another way to transport his oil
Wants to build a large pipeline and cut the railroads out of the oil business for
good
The completed pipeline Is over 4,000 miles long
Lost 40% of their business
Bad crash
Vanderbilt dies at the age of 82
Vanderbilt leaves empire to his son, William
Tom Scott wants to build his own pipeline
Tom Scott lays off 10% of his workers
Fire is set in Tom Scotts train yard
Tom Scotts company is destroyed

Carnegie:

Tom Scott dies a humiliated man because of Rockefeller

Carnegie begins working for a railroad at age 12
Meets Tom Scott and becomes friends
Tom Scott is his mentor
Carnegie is very smart
Carnegie becomes manager of his company at age 24
Wants to build a bridge across the Mississippi
Invests all his money to the bride
Gets the idea to make the bridge out of steel
Needs to find a way to mass produce steel
Carnegie begins construction on the bridge

He is running out of money and cannot pay for the steel

Without money, Carnegie has to pause the construction of the bridge
Received money from investors
After 40 years of work, the bridge was complete
Has a parade
Has an elephant walk across the bridge to prove it is safe
Carnegie builds his 1st steel plant (21 mil)
108 acres, steel plant
225 tons of steel per day
Carnegie has bad timing, there were too many railroads and not enough
traffic
Rockefeller pulls his oil from trains
Carnegies business will fail without oil
Tom Scott is dead
Steel becomes a popular product
Skyscraper boom makes Carnegie rich
Rockefeller is 7x more rich than Carnegie
Henry Frick is a ruthless business man
Carnegie wants to team up with Frick
Fricks 1st assignment is to get Carnegie steel into shape, to make more
money
Hiring Frick will be an awful idea
Carnegie steel profits are doubling
Carnegie and Frick buy out the competition
Carnegies net worth is $32 billion
Frick is chairman of company
Frick wants to take Carnegies spot
Fricks club takes control of the South Fork Dam
People beg Frick to strengthen the dam, he doesnt
South Fork bridge is getting weak, could break
Calls Johnstown and says to evacuate
Johnstown ignores the message
The town gets flooded
Over 2,000 people are dead
The Johnstown flood is the worst man made act before 9/11
The public blames Frick and club members
Frick and members get away with murder
Carnegie donates millions to help rebuild Johnstown
Builds statues all over the country
Carnegie Hall in NY
Carnegie is treated like royalty
Rockefeller is 3x wealthier than Carnegie
Carnegie invests millions in a struggling steel mill in Pittsburgh, PA
Asks Frick to do his dirty work
Carnegie builds castle in Scotland and lives there

Frick makes the workers work 12 hours a day 6 days per week
A worker died
Workers protest against Frick
Frick calls in reinforcement
2,000 men barricade
9 Carnegie steel workers are dead
Homestead is back in the hands of management
The public blames Henry Frick for the fight
Frick gets shot but lives
Anarchists start to form
People want revenge on Frick
Frick is stabbed, but lives and recovers
Carnegie is reminded that Frick is a liability

J.P Morgan:

Made some railroads profitable

Ends the war and makes peace
Continues targeting failing companies
Is a banker
Invests other peoples money to make a fortune of his own
At 40 years old, he is making a name for himself
Father was Julius Morgan
JP Morgan knew he could be more successful than his father
Wants to build an empire
Thomas Edison discovered light, he wants to team up with Edison
Thomas Edison has over 1000 patents
JPM hires Edison to install Edison lighting inside his home
Morgan invites people over to see the lighting
Morgans event is a success
Invests everything in electricity
The Edison electric light company is formed
JP Morgan and Edison formed it
2 men begin working
Lay over 1000 feet of power wire, connecting to buildings and homes
Power station up and running, city lights up
JPM and Edison make a fortune
Rockefeller realizes his kerosene business is failing
Rockefeller wants to scare people by saying electricity is dangerous and
causing fires
Tessla (Edisons assistant) creates alternating current (AC)
Tessla leaves the company and starts his own
Tessla finds an investor (George Westinghouse)
Tesla demonstrates how safe AC is
JPM gets mad at Edison for being wrong
Tesla developed a new way to transmit electricity

Tesla is competing against Edison and JPM

Edison wants to prove that DC (direct current) is safer than AC (alternating
current)
NY prison contacts Edison to make an electric chair using AC
It doesnt work, AC is safe
Edisons reputation is ruined
The worlds largest power plant is being built at Niagara Falls
They dont know if AC or DC will power the plant
JPM father dies
4 million investment
JPM knows he needs to eliminate the competition
Westinghouse in debt/ struggling
Tesla gave Westinghouse control of AC
Tesla has patent to AC but doesnt make Westinghouse pay
Rips up patent