Vanderbilt, William H.

Vanderbilt, William H. (Henry)

(1821–85) railroad developer, financier; born in New Brunswick, N.J. His father, “Commodore” Vanderbilt, regarded him as incapable of playing a role in his business empire, but after William succeeded at running a farm on Staten Island and then at turning around the bankrupt Staten Island Railroad (1857–63), his father appointed him vice-president of the New York & Harlem Railroad (1864). He soon became his father's closest aide and an able administrator, and after his father's death (1877), he became president of the New York Central and expanded the railroad system even further with the purchase of other lines. Like his father, he gave good service and invested in good equipment, but also like his father he could be ruthless in pursuit of profit. He gave special rates to favored commercial customers, he bribed officials when they threatened to expose the illegal tactic, and he fought government regulation whenever he could. Although he was, unlike his father, generous with gifts during his lifetime, he remains best known for his 1882 crack, "The public be damned!" When he saw that the tide was turning against such vast monopolies as his, he sold large amounts of stock in 1879. In poor health, he resigned as president of the New York Central Railroad in 1883 and gave his final years to his philanthropies and his interest in horses. By his death, he had doubled the already vast family fortune, which he left to his three sons.