The Gilded Age

The industrialization of America produces wealth in every major city. Some is enjoyed by those who bought land early, but most is produced by people who worked for it, by erecting factories and starting new industries.

By 1890, the scale of wealth has expanded dramatically. As railroads companies merge to create ever larger entities, and bare-knuckle businessmen buy up both competitors and suppliers, the fortunes at the top grow fantastically.

This produces a new crop of top-tier titans, like Vanderbilt and Carnegie, with personal wealth beyond anything ever known in America. They are the titans of their day, and live like it. 
Great fortunes, 1890

  Fat Elites
The 1890s usher in a whole new breed of industrialists who are less interested in running businesses than profiting from stock manipulation. Shown here are the top tier of those who earn the title 'robber baron,' exuding a style that is both aggressive and ruthless. Mark Twain laments the rise of insatiable empire-building in his book The Gilded Age. The name sticks.

Millionaires, 1890

  None are Angels
These men occupy the top tier of the mega-rich, which today we might call the top 0.0001%. John Jacob Astor III (top center) is the only one to inherit fabulous wealth (from his ruthless grandfather), but grows it still further managing the Astor real estate empire in New York. The remainder build their own fortunes in railroads, steel, oil, finance and even retail. They are as rich in their day as the billionaires of today, often climbing to the top on sharp-elbowed business practices. 


Pennsylvania Railroad, 1890, map

  Forging an Empire
Railroads build their terminals wherever their track ends. The first company to assemble a network connecting many independent lines is the Pennsylvania Railroad. This map shows the lines it actually owns (in GREEN, at right). All the other lines (various colors) are leased from the companies that built, and still own them. The Pennsylvania Railroad often buys substantial blocks of stock in the companies they lease from, creating America's first corporate empire assembled through interlocking ownership.