On January 4th 1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt, sometimes known as Commodore Vanderbilt, died.

Vanderbilt was an American born in New York on Staten Island. He was an entrepreneur and business magnate who started in shipping then steamboats and steamship lines but he is most well known for his railway (railroad) empire.

On his death his fortune was worth over US$100 million, or 1.15% of the US Gross Domestic Product back then. A lot of money in other words. Converting the dollar amount into today's money, allowing for inflation, it would come to over two and a quarter billion dollars.

Image: By Produced by Mathew Brady’s studio, restored by Michel Vuijlsteke [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cornelius_Vanderbilt_Daguerrotype2.jpg)