The New York Central railroad

became the centerpiece of his empire,

and it came to him as the sudden result

of a skillfully executed campaign to get revenge.

Railroads soon criss-cross America,

tying together the country in a way

that just fifteen years earlier was unimaginable,

and providing over 180,000 jobs.

Laying tracks becomes America's engine for unprecedented growth

Railroads allowed the industrial economy

to boom in ways that it couldn't have before.

One advance after the other,

which essentially was led by the railroads,

largely because there was

a need to close the gap

between those east of the Mississippi and those on the West Coast.

Vanderbilt has made himself

the undisputed king of railroads.

And now, he wants the world to know it.

He envisions a monument that will symbolize his immense power.

Work will begin on building a new station

that will bring together the three railroads:

the Harlem, the Hudson, and the Central.

It shall be in the heart of New York

and be called the Grand Central Depot.

Thousands of workers labor

over the next two years,

on the most ambitious urban construction project America has ever seen.

Grand Central is the biggest building in all of New York City,

and the biggest train station in the country,

covering some twenty-two acres.

This enormous building towered

over every other building in New York at the time.

And it was a physical symbol of the size and power of Vanderbilt's railroad empire.

Its importance as a physical symbol,

as a physical capital of his empire,

cannot be underestimated.

And it still stamps New York's geography to this day.

Vanderbilt may be on top of the world,

but his blind ambition will soon make him vulnerable

to a challenge coming from the most unlikely pair imaginable.

To Vanderbilt's money!