- The Vanderbilts, one of the wealthiest Gilded Age families in America, owned several opulent homes.
- The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island was their summer vacation.
- Today the Breakers is a museum, has 70 rooms and covers 13,300 square meters.
During the Gilded Age, Cornelius Vanderbilt was the richest man in America with an estimated net worth of $100 million, which is equivalent to about $200 billion in today’s currency. He had amassed his fortune in the railroad business during a time of rapid economic growth and industrialization and would today be wealthier than Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett.
His grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, succeeded him as president and chairman of the New York Central Railroad in 1885. Inheriting the family fortune, he built a 138,300-square-foot, 70-room mansion on the shores of Newport, Rhode Island, as a summer vacation for his wife, Alice Vanderbilt, and their seven children.
The seaside residence, dubbed “The Breakers” after the waves that crash on Newport’s rocky shores, was one of many opulent homes owned by the Vanderbilts as one of the richest Gilded Age families in America.
The mansion is now a museum open to the public. Take a look inside.
