6 Wealthy Families Who Lost Their Fortunes

2. The Vanderbilts

$5.1 billion (1887) to $0 (2015)

Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the wealthiest Americans ever, was a business magnate, best known for building the New York Central Railroad. He purchased his first sailboat when he was only 16 and began a passenger ferry business in 1810, on Staten Island. The rise of steamboats didn’t scare Cornelius as he once again went into the new business all by himself and managed to attract former customers. He was in fact known for „stealing“ the customers from his competitors. He used the same model to invest in the railroads business and made $25 million in five years.

He died in 1882, when his son William inherited the business and doubled the fortune to $200 million. The third generation stopped growing the fortune. Sixth generation (Vanderbilt Anderson Cooper, great-great-great-grandson of Cornelius) stated last year that the family does not have a trust fund anymore. Only thirty years after Commodore’s death, the family wealth was gone.

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