Chapter 921

Chapter 921 920. The Four Small Touches of the Evil Star (45)

After becoming a New York shipping giant, the first generation of Vanderbilt didn't get enough.

Then, taking advantage of the California Gold Rush period, he opened up a one-day steamer route from New York to California, which became popular because it could greatly reduce travel time and costs.

Later, when the Civil War broke out, the Vanderbilt family made the most successful investment. They supported the Lincoln government and used shipping to transport soldiers of the Union Army, making an indelible contribution to the unification of the United States.

After the unification of the United States, the Vanderbilt family reaped the benefits of political investment, and they became a real transportation giant. On the basis of the original shipping resources, they also obtained rail transportation resources.

At that time, he founded a railroad business empire, the New York Central Railroad Company, whose tracks extended the territory of the Vanderbilt family business empire across the United States and gave him a monopoly on operating all railroads in and out of New York City. right.

Li Du read the news introduction, when the first Vanderbilt passed away, he accumulated a fortune of 100 million US dollars!

This figure seems nothing now, but you must know that it was 1877, and the assets held by the U.S. Treasury Department at that time did not have 100 million U.S. dollars!

Later, the Vanderbilt family encountered a situation similar to that of the Winston family. The heirs were like weasels laying mice, and one litter was worse than the other!

Cole's father was not as talented as his grandfather, and he was even more inferior to his father. If it weren't for Li Du's sudden birth, the Hai Rui-Winston Group would have to change its name now.

Vanderbilt II can be regarded as a conservative king. He has been in charge of this transportation empire for 20 years. He has not made much progress, but he has not allowed the kingdom to decline.

Then when it came to his two sons, things started to go bad.

Initially it was his eldest son William Kissam Vanderbilt who took over the company, but soon retired in order to focus his time and energy on his yachts and thoroughbred racehorses.

His younger brother, George Vanderbilt, preferred not to be in the transportation business but to be in real estate.

Real estate is a good industry. As a result, what he likes is not the real estate sold out, but the continuous construction of super villas and mansions for himself to live in.

For example, the Vanderbilt family built more than a dozen luxury buildings between 51st and 59th Streets in Manhattan. Among them, Building 1 on 57th Street had 137 rooms and was the largest building in an American city at that time. .

For another example, the Vanderbilt family also built more than a dozen luxurious holiday villas, including Marble Villa, Tingtao Manor, and Billmore Manor.

Among them, Marble Villa was built by the third-generation Kissam from 1888, and was given to his wife Alva as a birthday present in 1892.

The 50-room luxury villa cost $11 million to build, with $7 million spent on marble alone.

When completed, its design and grandeur were unparalleled among American houses of the time, and its front porch is often compared to the White House to this day.

Tingtao Manor was built by Kisa’s brother Vanderbilt II from 1893 to 1895. It has its own advantages and disadvantages with Marble Villa, but it is much larger than Marble Villa. It has 70 rooms and a living area of ​​65,000 square meters. square feet.

The scale of Marble Villa and Tingtao Manor was already very large at that time. However, compared with the Biermore Manor, which took 6 years to build, it feels a bit insignificant.

The model architecture of the Bilmore Manor was designed by a famous French architect. It has 250 rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, 3 kitchens, a bowling alley, and an indoor swimming pool, covering an area of ​​178,926 square feet...

Li Du couldn't imagine how luxurious these villas were? What's the point of building so many large dwellings?

In short, the domineering Vanderbilt family can be seen from these buildings. Not only that, the family also donated money to build a university called Vanderbilt University.

According to media reports, after entering the 20th century, the Vanderbilt family enjoyed themselves, the business of the transportation empire continued to shrink, and the family wealth gradually shrank.

However, there are also reports that the wealth of the Vanderbilt family has not shrunk due to the reduction in business. On the contrary, they have used a large amount of wealth for unknown areas, resulting in a decrease in the money that can be used to develop the transportation business, making the transportation empire Shrinking step by step.

In these reports, some said that the fourth generation of Vanderbilt's successors were keen to find alien civilizations and ancient treasures around the world, and burned a lot of wealth in this regard.

There are also some reports that the wealth of the Vanderbilt family has not shrunk a lot. They just acted like this to avoid arousing conflicts between the people who hate the rich and avoid being suppressed by the government.

In short, no matter what, until now, the Vanderbilt family is still a big family with great weight in the world, but they are very low-key and there are not many reports.

Li Du didn't understand, Steve's surname is Tucenberg, how could he have a relationship with Vanderbilt, a super family in New York?

Moreover, according to reports, the Vanderbilt family is pure Dutch, but Steve has some Jewish features.

Cole's information is not wrong. Since he said that Steve is related to the Vanderbilt family, there must be a connection between the two parties. Li Du decided to go back to the villa first and explore later.

At about the same time, a police car stopped at the entrance of the villa, and a girl with a single ponytail got out of the car. She was wearing a sandy yellow police uniform, with stern eyes and a heroic appearance.

Seeing a stranger appear, the hounds who had been hiding in the shade of the tree were excited, jumped up and bared their teeth at the door and barked wildly.

Sophie heard the barking of the dog, and smiled at Victoria who was painting: "Look, since we have dogs, we don't need electric bells anymore."

Victoria and Ivana nodded gently. When Sophie left, they looked at each other, quickly opened the drawing paper and took out the comic book to read.

After walking out of the villa, Sophie said pleasantly, "Hi, Rose, hello, why are you here?"

She went up to drive the hound away: "Go, go, go to the side, stop barking, stop barking, this is a guest!"

The hounds didn't listen, but still yelled at Luo Qun.

Seeing Si Xiao still hiding in the shade of the tree, Sophie shouted, "Take them away, hurry up!"

The four little ones got up and barked a few times, and the hounds lowered their heads and returned to the shade of the tree.

When Luo Qun entered the door, except for Ali, the other three of the four primary schools looked at each other with sinister eyes.

They thought of the suffering of being under the same roof with Luo Qun, the fear of being dominated by a violent girl, and the way to get revenge on her!