The Vanderbilts were once the richest family in America. Then it all went wrong.

Read on to discover the story of the incredible boom and bust of one of the world’s most famous old-money dynasties. 

All dollar amounts in US dollars

The son of Dutch settlers who arrived in the US in the 17th century, Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on 27 May, 1794 in New York. Born into a farming family, his father also worked as a boatman, operating a small business transporting goods between Staten Island and New York City.

At the age of just 11, Cornelius Vanderbilt left school to work in the shipyard. 

The young Vanderbilt developed a keen interest in the shipping business. In 1810, when he was 16, his parents loaned him the money to buy his first sailing boat, which he used to take passengers around New York harbour.

He expanded to a small fleet, sharing the profits with his parents, and reportedly earned more than $1,000 in his first year, the equivalent of over $25,000 (£19.6k) in 2024 money. He was also nicknamed "Commodore."

In December 1813, Vanderbilt married his cousin Sophia Johnson against his parents' wishes. The couple had 13 children together, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. However, it wasn’t a happy marriage – Vanderbilt allegedly cheated on his wife multiple times.

He favoured his three sons and largely neglected his daughters, while he also reportedly had his son Cornelius Jeremiah sent to a lunatic asylum twice. This picture shows his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt.

Around 1818, Vanderbilt sold his fleet and went to work as a ferry captain for the wealthy businessman Thomas Gibbons. After getting to grips with the shipping industry, he started his own business in the late 1820s, operating ferry lines and building ships. He also established a new shipping route between New York City and Philadelphia.

In the 1830s, his shipping lines in New York began to push out competitors, thanks to his competitive rates and aggressive marketing.

His tactics clearly worked, and by 1846, Vanderbilt had earned his first million dollars – the equivalent of around $40 million (£31.4m) in today’s money. During the California Gold Rush in the 1840s-50s, he established a steamship service to transport prospectors from New York City to San Francisco.

Offering a faster route by travelling across Nicaragua, it was a huge success to the extent that, in 1852, business rivals were so keen to get rid of him that they offered to pay him $40,000 a month to cancel his operations. This later increased to $56,000, equivalent to $2.7 million (£2.1m) today.

Vanderbilt eventually accepted the offer. He bought a yacht called the North Star and took his family on a tour of Europe. But his taste for business hadn't gone, and he soon decided to focus on a new business venture: railroads.

In the 1860s, he bought several lines, including the New York & Harlem Railroad, the Hudson River Railroad, and the New York Central Railroad.

In 1868, Vanderbilt was involved in the Erie Railroad War, fighting Wall Street traders Jay Gould and Jim Fisk for control of the line between New York City and Lake Erie. Vanderbilt conspired with railroad owner Daniel Drew to buy up most of the shares, but Gould and Fisk responded by creating watered-down shares, which Vanderbilt continued to purchase.

Gould and Fisk were eventually given control of the line, but only after bribing lawmakers to legalise their acts. Vanderbilt was remunerated for the shares he bought. 

In Vanderbilt’s later years he played an instrumental role in the construction of New York City’s Grand Central Depot, which opened in 1871. Although it was replaced by the larger Grand Central Terminal in 1913, the building incorporated several modern features, including elevated platforms and an underground design to reduce noise and smoke.

Around this time, Vanderbilt donated a generous $1 million ($25m/£19.6m today) to the newly formed Central University. When it opened in 1873, it was renamed Vanderbilt University in his honour.

Cornelius Vanderbilt – "America's first great tycoon" – died in January 1877, leaving behind a fortune of well over $100 million, equivalent to around $3 billion (£2.4bn) in today’s money. Yet his estate was not divided equally among his children.

Instead, he left $90 million ($2.7bn/£2.1bn today) to his son William Henry Vanderbilt, $7.5 million ($224m/£176m today) to William’s four sons – his grandchildren – while the remaining small amount was left to his daughters. This was in keeping with the misogynistic attitudes he held throughout his life.

After the death of his father, William Henry Vanderbilt had big shoes to fill. William was in charge of the family business for less than a decade, but during that time he expanded the railroad network to include several other railroads in the Midwest.  William also continued the tradition of philanthropy that his father Cornelius had started, donating to the Vanderbilt University and other institutions.

William built a block-long mansion called the Triple Palace on New York's Fifth Avenue (pictured), filling it with his impressive art collection. Later, William's descendants built more mansions on the street, although they have since been demolished.

In poor health, William resigned in 1883. By that time, he had reportedly almost doubled the family fortune to around $200 million – or over $6 billion (£4.7bn) in today’s money. 

Two years later, William Henry Vanderbilt died and left the business to his sons William Kissam Vanderbilt (pictured) and Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Cornelius managed the railroad side of the business until his death in 1899, when his brother took over.

In 1903, William K. Vanderbilt handed over management of the railroads to an outside firm, deciding to focus on other interests, including collecting art, breeding horses, and racing yachts.

William is said to have described his inherited wealth as a “handicap to happiness”, according to a book about the family written by cousin Arthur T. Vanderbilt II. William is pictured here with his second wife, Anne.

In 1888, George Washington Vanderbilt, brother to William and Cornelius, began to buy up land in Asheville, North Carolina. By the end of the century, he boasted a 125,000-acre estate. He built a 250-room chateau on the plot, which was designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt.

The house, known as Biltmore House, served as residence for George, his wife Edith, and their children before being handed down to the next generation of Vanderbilts.

Another impressive piece of real estate owned by the Vanderbilts was a large house called The Breakers, located in Newport, Rhode Island. Also designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the mansion was modelled on 16th-century Renaissance palaces and served as the residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife, Alice. 

As well as The Breakers and Biltmore House, the Vanderbilt family property portfolio included 10 mansions on Fifth Avenue, a Beaux Arts-style house in Hyde Park, New York, a property called Marble House in Rhode Island, and a house overlooking the Long Island Sound. 

In the late 1920s, business peaked for the New York Central Railroad Company, and shortly afterwards demand began to decline. By the end of World War II competition from cars, buses, and aeroplanes spelled serious trouble for the family business.

The failure of the Vanderbilt heirs to diversify had left them with few income streams to fall back on.

One of those heirs was the son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Claypoole Gwynne, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (pictured). His main interests didn't match his business-minded father and grandfather – he was into racehorses, gambling, and drinking.

On the night of his 21st birthday, he allegedly gambled away $70,000 of the inheritance he had just received, the equivalent of over $2.6 million (£2m) today. He died aged 45 in 1925. Meanwhile, his brother Cornelius Vanderbilt III also spent extensively on keeping up appearances. 

Symbolic of the family’s material decline, many of their Fifth Avenue mansions were demolished in the 20th century. William Kissam Vanderbilt’s Parisian-style house on 52nd and Fifth was destroyed in 1926.

Meanwhile, Cornelius Vanderbilt II’s elaborate brick-and-limestone mansion, located on the corner of 58th and Fifth, was destroyed in 1927. Department store Bergdorf Goodman later took on the location.

Arguably the best-known Vanderbilt in recent history, Gloria Laura Vanderbilt was born in February of 1924 in New York, the daughter of Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and his second wife, Gloria Mercedes Morgan.

However, Gloria didn't get to know her father, as he died when she was a baby.

After her father's death, Gloria Vanderbilt’s early childhood was spent in Paris under the care of her mother, who reportedly spent more time travelling, partying, and socialising than she did looking after her daughter. Gloria was cared for by her live-in nurse. Living off the interest payments from young Gloria's trust fund (that she would access at 21), her mother spent excessively. But when Gloria came down with tonsillitis, her mother returned her to the US for treatment, leaving her with her aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (pictured left) to recover while she returned to Europe.

The other Vanderbilts halved the interest payments, and when Gloria Morgan returned to America for her daughter, Gertrude refused to give her back. And so, at the age of 10, Gloria (pictured centre) became the focus of a fierce custody battle between her mother and her aunt. 

In 1934, when New York was feeling the full force of the Great Depression, the tale of the scandalous custody battle over Gloria Vanderbilt transfixed the city. The press was divided on the issue: some reporters backed Gloria’s mother, pictured here with the young Gloria, while others criticised her, depicting an alcohol-fuelled, affair-filled lifestyle that made her unfit to be a parent.

After seven weeks of testimony, her aunt was awarded full custody, with Gloria Morgan only being granted weekend visits to her child.

In 1941, at just 17, Gloria Vanderbilt dropped out of school to marry Pasquale “Pat” DiCicco, an American agent and movie producer 15 years her senior. Reporting on the engagement, the New York Times claimed that Gloria would receive a fortune of more than $4 million when she reached the age of 21. That's the equivalent of over $85 million (£67m) in 2024. 

However, DeCicco was emotionally and physically abusive towards her, and the couple divorced in 1945.

Gloria Vanderbilt met her second husband, conductor Leopold Stokowski, when she was still married to DiCicco. After her divorce the pair were married the same year. Their marriage lasted for 10 years and they had two children together, Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski and Christopher Stokowski, before getting divorced.

Vanderbilt’s third marriage was to film director Sidney Lumet (pictured), and lasted seven years. Finally, she married Wyatt Cooper, who she considered the love of her life, in 1964, and they had two children together.

An artist, actress, writer, and fashion designer, Gloria Vanderbilt had many strings to her bow. As a young girl she became interested in art through her aunt Gertrude, the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art. In the 1940s she gave her first art show in Manhattan.

She also acted in several Broadway shows, wrote several books, and released a successful line of designer jeans in the 1970s. 

Meanwhile, the railroad business that Cornelius Vanderbilt had built was falling further into decline. Between 1946 and 1958, the New York Central Railroad Company had to drop four of its six fastest daily journeys between New York City and Chicago.

Despite merging with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to create the Penn Central Transportation Company, the new railroad filed for bankruptcy in 1970 and New York Central’s services were taken over by Amtrak and Conrail in 1971.

Anderson Cooper, the son of Gloria Vanderbilt and Wyatt Cooper, was born in June 1967. He was soon in the spotlight, and was photographed for the cover of Harper’s Bazaar as a baby and even appeared in designer ad campaigns as a child model. 

In 1978, when Cooper was just 10 years old, his father died during open-heart surgery. Then, a decade later, his brother Carter (pictured right) died after jumping from the window of his mother’s 14th-floor apartment.

In an interview with ABC News, Cooper described how these events “radically changed” him, stating, “I became much more introverted. I became very concerned about survival.”

Vanderbilt’s youngest son from her second marriage, Christopher Stokowski, cut off all contact with the family in 1978 after accusing Gloria’s therapist of meddling in his love life.

This was another blow for Anderson, who had been close with his half-brother. The siblings are said to have reunited in 2014 after 38 years without contact.

Cooper (pictured left) studied political science at Yale before becoming a fact-checker for Channel One News. Finding the job unfulfilling, he forged a press pass and went to Myanmar to report on the political turmoil there, which earned him recognition from Channel One and helped him gain the role of chief international correspondent.

After Channel One, Cooper was hired by ABC News as a reporter in 1994 and then worked as a co-anchor of World News Now. After a brief stint hosting reality series The Mole, Cooper began working as a news reporter at CNN in 2001. He later became anchor of his own show, Anderson Cooper 360°, featured regularly on CNN’s NewsNight, and contributed to several other shows, including CBS’s 60 Minutes and daytime talk show Anderson.

In June 2019, Gloria Vanderbilt died at the age of 95. On the day of her death, Cooper gave a moving eulogy on CNN highlighting his mother’s life experiences and successes alongside footage and photographs of her.

He described her as “the strongest person I’ve ever met,” as a woman who “lived… on her own terms" whose private self “was more fascinating and more lovely than anything she showed the public.”

At the time of her death, reports pegged Gloria Vanderbilt’s net worth at around $200 million (£157m). News outlets reported that Gloria Vanderbilt might not have left her inheritance to her son, as prior to her death, Cooper had decried inheritance as a “curse” and Gloria viewed wealth as an obstacle to hard work.

However, those early reports massively overestimated the size of Vanderbilt’s estate.

In July 2019, the New York Post claimed that Anderson Cooper would receive just $1.5 million (£1.2m), which was “the total value of her estate at the time of her death.” However, official court documents revealed that Cooper also received the majority of his mother’s estate (though an exact figure was not revealed).

It seems likely that Cooper received his mother’s property assets, except for her Manhattan apartment that Vanderbilt’s eldest son, Leopold “Stan” Stokowski (pictured), received. Meanwhile her estranged son Christopher Stokowski received nothing. 

Today, the substantial fortune built by the early Vanderbilts has almost entirely disappeared.

Now discover the incredible story of 'the richest girl in the world'