The first Vanderbilt wasn"t satisfied after becoming a New York s.h.i.+pping magnate.
Then, during the California gold rush, he carved out a s.h.i.+pping route from New York to California, which was popular because it greatly reduced travel time and costs.
Then the civil war broke out, and the Vanderbilt family made one of its most successful investments. They supported the Lincoln government. They s.h.i.+pped Union soldiers to the north and made an indelible contribution to the unification of the United States.
After the reunification of the United States, the Vanderbilt family reaped the benefits of their political investment. They became the real transportation tyc.o.o.n and gained the railway transportation resources on the basis of their original s.h.i.+pping system.
Vanerbilt founded a railroad empire, the New York Central railroad, whose tracks extended the Vanderbilt empire across the United States and gave him a monopoly on all railroads in and out of New York City.
Reading the news, Li Du found, by the time the first Vanderbilt died, he had ama.s.sed a 100 million dollar fortune!
That number didn"t seem to matter now, but this was 1877, when even the U.S. Treasury didn"t hold a.s.sets of 100 million dollars!
In the future, the Vanderbilt family encountered a situation similar to the Winston family, the new generations were like a weasel giving birth to a mouse, getting worse generation after generation!
Cole"s father was no match for Cole"s grandfather, Cole was no match for his father, and if it hadn"t been for the emergence of Li Du, the Harry Winston group would have changed its name.
The second Vanderbilt was a holdout. He had been in charge of the transportation empire for twenty years, making little progress, but did not let the kingdom fall.
By the time his two sons took over, things were starting to look bad.
At first, his oldest son, William Kissam Vanderbilt, took over, but he soon retired to concentrate on his yacht and thoroughbred racing.
His brother, George Vanderbilt, did not like transportation. He preferred real estate over the transportation industry.
Real estate was a good business. However, as a result, he preferred not to take out real estate, but to keep building super-sized villas and mansions for himself to live in.
The Vanderbilt family, for example, had built more than a dozen luxury towers between 51st and 59th street in Manhattan, including one on 57th street, which had 137 rooms and was the largest building in American cities at the time.
The Vanderbilt family also built more than a dozen luxury vacation villas, including Mabel villa, the Breaker"s villa, Biltmore estate, and so on.
One of the villas, the Mabel villa, had been built by a third-generation Kissam in 1888 and was given to his wife Alva as a birthday gift in 1892.
The 50-room luxury villa cost 11 million dollars to build and 7 million dollars for the marble alone.
When it was finished, its design and grandeur were unparalleled in American houses of the time. Its front porch had often been compared to the White House until now.
The Breaker had been built between 1893 and 1895 by Kissam"s older brother, the second generation Vanderbilt. The Breaker was a far larger alternative to Mabel, with 70 rooms and a residential area of 65,000 square feet.
The sizes of the Mabel and the Breaker were already very large at the time, but they were dwarfed by the Biltmore manor, which took six years to build.
The model structure of the Biltmore manor had been designed by famous French architects with 250 rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, one bowling alley, and one indoor swimming pool, covering 178,926 square feet . . .
Li Du couldn"t imagine how luxurious these villas were. What was the point in building so many large houses?
The Vanderbilt family"s status was able to thrive with these buildings, and more than that, the family donated money to build a university, dubbed "Vanderbilt University."
According to media reports, as the Vanderbilt family settled into the 20th century, the business of the transportation empire shrank and the family wealth shrank.
But it had also been reported that the Vanderbilt family"s wealth did not shrink as a result of the decline in business. On the contrary, the Vanderbilt family had spent a lot of wealth in unknown ways, resulting in less money to develop the transportation business, which caused the transportation empire to shrink step by step.
Some of these reports suggested that the fourth generation of Vanderbilts burned their wealth in their search for alien civilizations and ancient treasures from across the globe.
Some reports even said that the Vanderbilt family"s wealth hadn"t fallen much and that they were just acting like that to avoid creating a backlash and a government crackdown.
Anyway, up until now, the Vanderbilt family was still a very big family with a high status around the world, but they were very low key and not very well reported on.
He wondered how Steve, apparently a Tussenberg, could be related to New York"s great Vanderbilt family?
And, according to reports, the Vanderbilts were completely Dutch, and Steve had some Jewish features.
Cole"s message couldn"t be wrong. Since he said Steve had something to do with the Vanderbilts, there must be a connection between the two sides. Regarding the details, Li Du decided to go back to the villa to find them out.
Around the same time, a police car stopped at the entrance of the villa. A girl with a single ponytail got out. She wore a brownish police suit. Her eyes were sharp and she looked handsome.
Excited at the sight of a stranger, the hounds in the shade jumped up and grinned wildly at the door.
Sophie heard the barking and laughed at Victoria, who was painting. "Look, since we have dogs, we don"t need an electric bell."
Victoria and Ivana nodded politely, and when Sophie left, they look at each other and quickly opened the drawing paper to take out the comic books to read.
When Sophie came out of the villa, she was surprised and said, "Hi, Rose, how come you"re here?"
She went up to yell at the hound, "Go, go, go, go aside! Don"t bark, this is a guest!"
The hounds did not listen and continued barking at Luo Qun.
Sophie saw the four little kids still hiding in the shade of the tree and shouted, "Take them away, hurry up!"
The four little kids got up and made a few sounds, and the hounds bent their heads and went back into the shade.
When Luo Qun entered the door, the eyes of the three, except Ali, turned sinister.
They thought of the misery of being under the same roof as Luo Qun, of the fear of being dominated by the violent girl—they needed to find a way to revenge!