Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794. He was an American Steamship and Railroad builder as well as a financier and promoter. He was born to a poor family and he quit school at eleven. He owned his first business at age sixteen as a transport and freight service. By the war of 1812, the government was contracting him to supply forts around New York and the profits allowed him to build a schooner and two other boats for coastal trade. He became known as "the commodore" because he had the largest schooner on the Hudson River. By 1817 he had over $9000 to his name. He sold his company and went to Thomas Gibbons in 1818 to be part of ferryboat service on the Hudson. He charged less