All language subtitles for The Men Who Built America 1War Begins.eng

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- NARRATOR: Just five days
after the end of the Civil War,

President Abraham Lincoln
is the final

of the six hundred
thousand deaths

in America's
bloodiest conflict.

The country is divided,
and the world looks

at American democracy
as a failed experiment.

But what most don't realize

Is that a new era has dawned.

The nation is entering
an age of advancement,

and from the void left by
the death of perhaps

the greatest statesman
we will ever know,

a new breed of
leader will emerge.

The Rockefellers, the Fords,

the Carnegies, were the
first generation

of what we know as now the
entrepreneurial rock stars,

or what are
today are the Buffets,

and the Jobs,
and the Gates.

They were the ones that set the
standard for the American dream.

They owned a new frontier--
literally and figuratively--

of who we are
as a culture.

-Men of
insight, innovation,

and ingenuity, the likes
of which the world

has never seen, and over
the next five decades,

this small group
will change history,

propelling the United States
ofAmerica to greatness.

These
were great men

with a vision that
nobody else had.

And that's why in
the last century--

that fifty year period--
we built the world.

For the first
time in the country's

short existence,
the man most capable

of leading America
is not a politician.

He's a self-made man, who,
through sheer force of will,

turned a poor
upbringing on the docks

of New York Harbor,
into an empire.

At sixteen, Cornelius
Vanderbilt buys

a small ferry boat with a
one hundred dollar loan.

He quickly earns a reputation
as a cutthroat businessman,

willing to use any means
necessary to get ahead.

Back then, it
was just pure competition.

My brain
against your brain.

My effort against
your effort.

You just competed.

That's the way they
looked at business.

It was the
Wild, Wild West,

and by hook or crook,
it was just win or lose,

and the best win.

- He was a tough guy.

Getting into scraps
with other men,

beating the hell out of them
and knocking them unconscious.

That competitive streak,
and that toughness,

very much defined
his character.

His single
ferry soon becomes

a fleet of ships, transporting
goods and passengers

to every corner of the
growing country.

Vanderbilt will become so
synonymous with shipping

that his nickname
becomes "the Commodore".

- I think Vanderbilt
recognized

that what was going to be
important is transporting goods

from one place to another.

And he had this idea that
required infrastructure,

and not infrastructure the
government was going to provide,

but that he
was going to provide.

Over
the next forty years,

Vanderbilt builds the largest
shipping empire in the world.

Then, at the peak
of his power,

just before the Civil War,
he does the unthinkable.

Work is under way on the
first Transcontinental Railroad,

and the
Commodore realizes

that its completion will
transform America,

slashing cross-country
travel time by months.

Railroads were
absolutely liberating,

because the railroads
allowed cheap

and efficient transportation

from one corner ofAmerica
to another.

Vanderbilt
sees his future.

He sells all of his
ships and invests

everything he has in railroads.

You talk
about seeing around corners

as an
element of success.

That's what differentiates
a good leader.

Not many people have it.

Not many people can
predict that corner.

That is a characteristic
of great leaders.

- (train whistle blows)

His decision to
invest heavily in rail pays off.

By the end of the war,
Vanderbilt

is the richest man in America,

with a net worth of over
sixty-eight million dollars,

the equivalent of seventy-five
billion today.

But all that money can't
buy his escape

from the war's devastation.

- (ship horn blows)

In the wake of the Civil War,

a country mourns publicly,
while Vanderbilt does so privately.

The
first card is the past,

the second, the present,
and the third is the future.

There has been an
unexpected loss.

Someone close to you.

My son. George.

He died in the war.

What about the future?

The chariot.

There will be a war.

The war's over.

- No. Your war is
about to begin.

- Hey.

Watch it, man!

Tormented by
the loss of his favorite son,

Vanderbilt's empire is more
vulnerable than ever before.

For Vanderbilt,
this is a great tragedy.

He had one son who
had that same sense

of physical strength
and ability,

and he had died when he
was still quite young.

It was deeply troubling
for the Commodore.

For years,
Vanderbilt groomed George

to take over the
family business.

Now, the Commodore is
forced to rely

on his less accomplished
son, William.

- I'm making you
operations director

of the Hudson Railroad.

Vanderbilt
places William in the midst

of negotiations with the owners
of a rival railroad.

- So name your price.

- If you give us your
freight, year round,

we will give you the privilege
of allowing your passengers

access into Manhattan for
two hundred thousand.

- That privilege is
not worth two hundred thousand.

- Then let us settle
on one hundred thousand?

I believe that to be a
fair and generous offer.

- I'm not really
interested in your generosity.

I'm only interested in
getting the best deal

for my shareholders.

And that does not
include handing

over one hundred thousand
dollars, or even one dollar.

- My father wants only
what he believes is right.

- The trouble is, your father
doesn't know what is right.

The old man should be
put out to pasture.

The
message is clear.

The competition no longer sees
Vanderbilt as a man to fear.

People
are always rooting

for very successful
people to fail.

The day people are not
taking shots at you means

you're not on top anymore.

But where
they see weakness,

the Commodore sees
an opportunity

to assert his dominance,

and teach William what it means
to be a Vanderbilt.

If
they want a war,

I'll give them a war.

Vanderbilt
owns the only rail bridge

into New York City.

It's the gateway to the
country's largest port,

supplying the
entire continent.

Vanderbilt knows this is
the hammer he needs to beat

his rivals
into submission.

- Sit down.

I want you to close
the Albany Bridge.

Without the bridge,

every other railroad is
shut out of New York City.

Vanderbilt,
in essence,

single-handedly erected
a blockade

around the nation's largest
city, cutting it off

from contact with the
rest of the country.

He was now asserting
his dominance.

Ladies
and gentlemen,

this train will not
be going any farther!

- We're gonna
watch them bleed.

The Civil War
has left America in ruins.

For the first time
in its history,

the nation must rebuild.

Over fifty-thousand miles
of railroad track

have transformed the country.

"Commodore" Cornelius
Vanderbilt grew up poor,

but has created a
railroad empire,

making him the richest
man in the country.

At 72, he's thirty years past
the average life expectancy,

and his competitors
see him as weak.

It's a mistake they'll
come to regret.

Locked in a battle for
control of the rail lines

east of the Mississippi,

the Commodore is
holding nothing back.

- I want you to close
the Albany Bridge.

We're gonna
watch them bleed.

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt
controls the only bridge

into New York City,
America's busiest port.

Seizing an opportunity,
he sets up a blockade.

- (train chugging
and hissing)

- This train will not
be going any farther!

- (indistinct clamor)

- NARRATOR: Shutting the
bridge leaves millions of pounds

of cargo unable to reach
the rest of the country,

and slowly bleeds
his competitors dry.

Before their stock
is worthless,

the presidents of the
rival railroad

try to sell all their shares.

Word quickly
reaches Wall Street,

triggering a
massive sell-off.

- (trading floor clamor)

- Come on, put some money
in that. Come on.

- New York Central
shares are dropping fast.

- How low?

- $20 a share.

- Buy everything you can.

- (trading floor clamor)

- T.J. STILES: Vanderbilt was
buying all of that stock

that suddenly flooded the market
at rock-bottom prices.

- (trading floor clamor)

- Three aces.

- MAN: Ooh, that's good.

- NARRATOR: In just days,
Vanderbilt takes control

of the rival railroad,
creating the largest

single rail
company in America.

- J.S. STILES: The New York
Central railroad

became the centerpiece
of his empire,

and it came to him as
the sudden result

of a skillfully executed
campaign to get revenge.

- NARRATOR: Railroads
soon criss-cross America,

tying together the
country in a way

that just fifteen years
earlier was unimaginable,

and providing
over 180,000 jobs.

Laying tracks becomes
America's engine

for unprecedented growth.

- H.W. BRANDS: Railroads
allowed the industrial economy

to boom in ways that it
couldn't have before.

- ALAN GREENSPAN: One
advance after the other,

which essentially was
led by the railroads,

largely because there was
a need to close the gap

between those east
of the Mississippi

and those on the West Coast.

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt
has made himself

the undisputed king
of railroads.

And now, he wants
the world to know it.

He envisions a monument
that will symbolize

his immense power.

- Work will begin on
building a new station

that will bring together
the three railroads:

the Harlem, the Hudson,
and the Central.

It shall be in the
heart of New York,

and be called the
Grand Central Depot.

- NARRATOR: Thousands
of workers labor

over the next two years,
on the most ambitious

urban construction project
America has ever seen.

Grand Central is the
biggest building

in all of New York City, and
the biggest train station

in the country, covering
some twenty-two acres.

- T.J. STILES: This enormous
building towered

over every other building in
New York at the time.

And it was a physical
symbol of the size and power

of Vanderbilt's
railroad empire.

Its importance as
a physical symbol,

as a physical capital
of his empire,

cannot be underestimated.

And it still stamps New
York's geography to this day.

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt
may be on top of the world,

but his blind
ambition will soon make him

vulnerable to a
challenge coming

from the most unlikely
pair imaginable.

- (laughing)

- To Vanderbilt's money!

- (laughing)

- NARRATOR: The growth of the railroads
thrusts America into

the biggest building expansion
the country has ever seen

led, by a new breed of leader.

- STEVE CASE: The story of America
isn't just the story of the patriots

that helped build
the democracy.

The reason the United
States is a leading economy

in the world is
because of the work

of entrepreneurs who created
entire industries

that propelled the United
States to be the leader

of the free world.

- NARRATOR: One man,
Cornelius Vanderbilt,

through brute force
and intimidation,

has made himself the undisputed
king of the railroads.

He now owns forty percent
of America's train lines.

But he wants them all.

- DONNY DEUTSCH: To me,
it's always "What's next?"

and I think that's what drives
most very successful people.

It's never
about the money.

I mean, that's a way
of keeping score.

It's about achievement,
and it's about winning a game,

and it's about
upping the ante.

- NARRATOR: Chicago is
America's fastest growing city.

The line connecting
it to New York

is the most traveled and
valuable in all the world.

And it's not Vanderbilt's.

To make his
empire complete,

he must gain control
of the Erie Line.

- The Erie was one of the
relatively early publicly

traded corporations.

Vanderbilt had
the advantage

of millions and millions
of dollars.

Deep pockets are always
an advantage

when you're trying to gain
control of a corporation.

- (trading floor clamor)

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt
instructs his agents

to buy up as much
stock as possible...

- Buying Erie!
Buying Erie!

- NARRATOR: ... demanding
control of the company

by the end of the week.

- Erie at forty-five!

- NARRATOR: It's a
vintage Vanderbilt move--

one he pioneered--known
today as a "hostile takeover".

- Erie, fifty!

- NARRATOR: But his
attempt will be thwarted

by an even more ingenious
idea cooked up by two unknowns:

Jay Gould and Jim Fisk.

- JIM FISK: All right.

- The mistake that the
Erie Board have made is

that they have telegraphed
where they need to expand

without securing
the land first.

- NARRATOR: Gould
and Fisk are stuck

in middle-management
at the Erie.

But they represent the new
America that Vanderbilt

is helping to create.

One of self-made men
with ruthless ambition.

And after years of
watching the Commodore

dominate, they're eager
to build their own empire.

They recognize
Vanderbilt's plan

to buy the line, and
see the opportunity

they've been waiting for.

- TED TURNER:
Competition, I think,

it's good for the system,
and it's really, I think,

what most
businesses is about,

is doing a better job, and
out-hustling your competitors.

- NARRATOR: Gould and
Fisk begin printing

new shares of stock,

using a printing press

they set up in the basement
of the Erie offices.

Each share they print
dilutes Vanderbilt's stake

in the company, and they
print over one hundred thousand.

- H.W. BRANDS: There was some
fine print in one of the clauses

of the Erie's
charter that allowed

the board of directors
to issue new stock,

unbeknownst to
the shareholders.

- Go.

- H.W. BRANDS: And so, the more
shares that Vanderbilt

bought, the more he had to
buy in order to approach

that magic majority.

- NARRATOR: Their plan is known
as "watering down stock".

Highly illegal
today, at the time,

it had never
been imagined.

Its simplicity
is brilliant.

And Wall Street
is never the same.

- MARK CUBAN: The only
rule was there were no rules.

Whatever it took to put
your competition

out of business, they were
gonna try to do it.

- NARRATOR: Unaware,
Vanderbilt continues to buy.

- Think of the
look on his face.

- (laughing)

- Oh, God, I wish I could
be a fly on that wall.

- (laughing)

- NARRATOR: The freshly
printed shares

are hand-delivered
to Vanderbilt.

- Here are the
Erie shares.

I assume we control
the company now.

- A toast!
- A toast.

- To money!

- (laughing)

- To Vanderbilt's money!

- (laughing)

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt
has bought seven million dollars

of watered-down
stock from Gould and Fisk.

Today, worth over
one billion dollars.

- (laughing)

- (shouts)

Vanderbilt has been
underestimated before,

but if you
come at the king,

you shouldn't
expect to win.

The greatest growth
explosion

in America's short
life is underway.

Rail lines now connect
huge expanses of the country.

Controlling them means
having power

that just five years earlier
was unimaginable.

Many are staking
their claim.

- RON PERELMAN: I think
there are people

in every generation that
have a vision that

transcends their
moment and their time.

- NARRATOR: "Commodore"
Cornelius Vanderbilt owns

more miles of rail than
anyone in the world.

But like all men of power, he
faces constant challenges.

- (shouts)

- DONALD TRUMP: Competition
gets very aggressive.

People have no idea
how aggressive it is.

And sometimes, you
don't even hear it,

because what goes on
behind your back

is not a pretty picture.
- (laughing)

- NARRATOR: At the
height of his power,

Vanderbilt is outsmarted
by a pair of unknowns.

- To Vanderbilt's money!

- (laughing)

- NARRATOR: Jay Gould and
Jim Fisk have fleeced

the Commodore out of millions.

And they want the
world to know it.

- Thank you,
don't mind if I do.

Now, it is no secret
what Vanderbilt

has been trying to do.

He owns more railroads
than anybody else.

But Gould and me, we
have struck a blow

for the little guy.

Now, sure, he may
be rich, and sure,

he may be powerful, but
somebody had to stand up

to the old bastard.

- (laughing)

- T.J. STILES: It was a
humiliating defeat

for the Commodore, a man who
was so fiercely competitive,

who wanted to win at
absolutely everything,

to whom money
was so important,

and here he was, defeated,
and insulted publicly,

by Gould and Fisk.

- NARRATOR: Gould and
Fisk may be on top of the world,

but they've
awakened a sleeping lion.

Vanderbilt vows to
never be beaten again.

- SUMNER REDSTONE: They
don't think in terms of money.

They think in
terms of winning.

Now, naturally, if you
win big in business,

money follows, but that
shouldn't be your objective.

Your objective
should be to win.

Win, win, win. All the time.
Not sometimes. Every time.

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt
immediately begins

looking for a new edge.

He realizes that the railroads
have been overbuilt,

and the future of the
industry isn't in building

new lines, but in
transporting new cargo.

- JACK WELCH: Innovation
is not a big breakthrough

invention every time.

Innovation is a
constant thing.

And if you don't have an
innovate company

coming to work everyday to
find a better way,

you don't have a company.

You're getting ready
to die on the vine.

- NARRATOR: If Vanderbilt
can corner the market

on a new source of freight,
one that can keep his trains

constantly full, he'll
be able to control

the railroad industry.

And the Commodore knows
just where to look.

Oil is revolutionizing
life in America.

Crude from the ground
is being refined into kerosene,

a safe and
inexpensive source of light,

and that access
to light is completely

changing the way
Americans live.

Before kerosene, the
average American

didn't have access to a
consistent light source.

When the sun came
down, darkness ruled.

Kerosene is a phenomenon that
will forever change the world.

And Vanderbilt knows it's
his next opportunity to cash in.

- RUSSELL SIMMONS: The
idea is to see what's missing.

That's what a creative
entrepreneur does,

he serves people
things that they need.

Some people can't find
a new thing to do.

But sometimes you see
something

that everybody has to have.

Oh men, I've got
to give them this

And then you go
to work on it.

Because they need it.

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt
sees the demand for

kerosene skyrocketing
all across the country.

He knows that to
meet the demand,

the makers of
kerosene will need

a new way to ship their oil.

If Vanderbilt can corner the
market on those oil shipments,

he'll propel himself
back to the top

of the railroad industry.

All he needs to do now
is find a supplier.

- We're gonna extend along the
south shore to Cleveland.

- WILLIAM: Why Cleveland?

- NARRATOR: Cleveland is
a small city

ofjust under fifty thousand,

but it's sitting on top
of an ocean of oil.

Eastern Ohio is the
Middle East of its day,

and the area around
Cleveland

is one of the largest
oil fields in the world.

Vanderbilt learns
about a refinery

built near the railroads
in Cleveland.

The perfect mark
for his master plan.

He reaches out
to the owner,

a struggling young
oil man Vanderbilt

is hoping to pluck
from obscurity.

That oil man is
John D. Rockefeller.

- Why are we playing
so much in plumbers?

- We run a refinery.

- So, we start
making our own pipes.

At this rate, we'll be lucky
if we break even this year.

- If you wanna call it
a day, John, just say.

- (baby crying)

- I should go.

- ELIZA: Is
everything all right?

- It's fine.

- NARRATOR: At the
age of twenty-seven,

Rockefeller is in the
early stages of building

his refining business, but
his company is teetering

on the verge
of bankruptcy.

Vanderbilt sees him as
someone he can manipulate

to his advantage.

An exclusive deal to ship
Rockefeller's oil

will guarantee that the
Commodore's trains

stay filled with cargo.

Vanderbilt invites
Rockefeller

to meet with him in New York.

For the young oil man,
the meeting

is the opportunity
of a lifetime.

A way out of his troubles,

and a way to save his company
from complete collapse.

- T.J. STILES: Rockefeller,
he respected Vanderbilt.

He could see what
he had achieved.

Vanderbilt was setting the
pattern and the archetype

of what Rockefeller
himself wanted to be.

He wanted to be the
Vanderbilt of petroleum.

That's the way
he saw himself.

- NARRATOR: As
Rockefeller prepares

for his trip to New York,

Vanderbilt's plan
is set in motion.

- How long is
this going to take?

- Five to ten minutes.

- NARRATOR: The train
departs Cleveland at 6:25 AM.

- (train whistles)

America is rising.

The country is experiencing
a period of growth

like none it's ever seen.

Railroads have
united the states,

and commerce flows with a speed
never before thought possible.

The man at the forefront
of this explosive change

is Cornelius
Vanderbilt, but at 76,

he realizes that the
railroads have been overbuilt.

To stay ahead of
the competition,

the Commodore turns to a
new exploding industry,

and a struggling young oil man,
John D. Rockefeller.

Vanderbilt invites him to
New York City for a meeting.

Fate intervenes.

- ROCKFELLER: The
Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures.

He restoreth my soul.

- NARRATOR: John Rockefeller
narrowly missed the train,

one that
would've carried him

to his certain death.

The close call has
a profound impact

on the young oil man.

- He leadeth me into
paths of righteousness

for His name's sake.

Amen.

- NARRATOR: A
man of deep faith,

he becomes convinced that
God has spared him for a reason.

- H.W. BRANDS: Without thinking
that he himself

in particular was chosen
by God to become

this great business success,
Rockefeller believed

that everything was
divinely ordained,

so nothing happened in the
world without God's will,

without God's blessing.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller
once again heads

to meet with Vanderbilt
as a changed man.

Where before he
was intimidated,

and facing bankruptcy,
now he's a man of destiny.

Cornelius Vanderbilt
may be the richest

and most powerful man
in the country,

accustomed to getting
what he wants,

but he has no idea what
he's about to encounter.

- Every business is about
understanding people.

Which people you
have to get through,

which people you
have to embrace,

which people you
have to jump over,

which people you have
to push out of the way.

That's the game.

- Do you play cards,
Mr. Rockefeller?

- No.

- VANDERBILT: Shame.

You could learn a lot
about competition.

- I know all
I need to know.

- So. I'm looking to do a deal
with an oil refinery.

And that could be you.

- I'm willing to do
an exclusive deal.

A dollar sixty-five
a barrel.

- That's a discount
of more than a third.

There are several
refineries in Cleveland.

Why should I give
you such a deal?

- Because I'll fill all
your trains with my oil.

And if you don't
do the deal,

I'll fill someone
else's trains.

- Mr. Rockefeller.

- Do you trust him?

- I don't know.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller may
have gotten the rate

he was looking for,
but in return,

he's agreed to provide
Vanderbilt

with over sixty train cars
of oil every day.

The only problem is,
Rockefeller has

no way to produce that
much kerosene.

His capacity is less
than half of that.

Rockefeller has
over-promised,

but he knows the deal
with Vanderbilt

will be the opportunity he's
been waiting for.

He just needs to find
a way to produce more kerosene.

It's a daunting task,
but John D. Rockefeller

has been beating
the odds his entire life.

Rockefeller is raised in a
poor Cleveland household,

but even as a young man,
he yearns for something more,

something bigger,
and he knows

it isn't going to
be handed to him.

As a young man, he shows
a strong entrepreneurial streak,

starting his
own small business

selling candy to
local children.

- Thank you very much.

Here's three pieces.

- NARRATOR: From an early age,
Rockefeller helps to support

his family, mostly
because he was never able

to rely on his father.

- BILL: It cures cancer.

Folks, that is right,
it cures cancer.

Now you're asking
yourself - Sir,

I bet in your mind you're
saying, "Bill, is this true?"

- NARRATOR: John Rockefeller's
father is a conman.

- ...Rebecca, I met
seven years ago.

She had pneumonia.

- NARRATOR: Better known around
Cleveland as "Devil Bill".

- Who would
like to buy some?

A dollar twenty-five
a bottle. Yes, sir.

- NARRATOR: He disappears for
months at a time,

leaving his family without
money to support themselves.

- I'm only here
for one day.

Once I'm gone, I am gone.

I may not be back.

Never trust anybody, son.

Not even me.

- NARRATOR: With his father
gone, Rockefeller is forced

to quit school and get a job to
support his mother and siblings.

His work ethic and
intuition will become

the building blocks for
the American dream.

- JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV:
My great-grandfather,

John D. Rockefeller,
was an absolutely

brilliant businessman when
he started out.

He wasn't even in
oil or anything.

You know, he worked
at it very very hard,

and there's an ethic in the
Rockefeller family of hard work.

- NARRATOR: Stuck in a
dead-end job,

he becomes fixated on
finding a big idea,

and taking a chance.

- PASTOR: Be
therefore perfect,

even as your father, which
is in Heaven, is perfect.

Would you please rise?

Let us sing Hymn 89.

- CONGREGATION:
♪ Joyful, joyful ♪

♪ We adore Thee ♪

♪ God of glory ♪

♪ Lord above ♪

- (rumbling)

(thud)

(rumbling grows)

- MAN: Get out!
It's gonna blow, get out!

- (rumbling grows louder)

- CONGREGATION:

♪ Hearts unfold like
flowers before Thee ♪

- (rumbling continues)
- ♪ Opening to the sun above ♪

♪ Melt the clouds
of sin and sadness... ♪

- (thud)

- ♪ Drive the dark
of doubt away ♪

♪ Giver of
immortal gladness ♪

- (rumbling)

- ♪ Fill us with
the light of day ♪

- (rumbling continues)

(well explodes)

- (men cheering)

- I think entrepreneurs,
and certain business people,

just look at life,
and look at things

that are changing, and are able
to see those things

and say, "I can create a
business out of that."

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller
realizes oil has the potential

to change the world.

And, make him rich
in the process.

But Rockefeller knows
that drilling for oil

is a gamble filled
with uncertainty.

And since he doesn't
believe in luck,

he starts looking for a
way to make money from oil

without the risk.

- H.W. BRAND: He had a
mind for efficiency.

And there was probably
something in him

that looked at the production
process and saw

how wasteful that was.

In the first place
you drill wells,

and they turn up dry.

And then you drill wells
and they hit a gusher,

and half the oil
would be lost.

And that offended his
sense of efficiency.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller knows
there's a better way.

- Today, everybody wants
to be an entrepreneur.

They've heard these great
stories, you know, about Apple.

But, you know what, when
you start a company,

you can think what the
revenues are gonna be,

how much it's gonna be
worth to shareholders,

but you always need
a technical element.

You need somebody who
knows how to do it

and build the things.
You need the scientists.

- NARRATOR: Refining oil turns
crude from the ground

into kerosene, a clean-burning
fuel that can be used in lamps.

- Once the oil gets to
three-hundred and fifty degrees,

the kerosene
starts to vaporize.

Then once it's cooled,
you have a stable, pure product.

- How much to
produce a gallon?

- Fifty, sixty cents.
I don't know.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller's
insight puts him

one step ahead
of his competitors.

He believes that while
gamblers drill for oil,

businessmen refine it.

- Whoever could control
the refining process

could very well have the
whole industry.

- NARRATOR:
At twenty-four years old,

Rockefeller invests
everything he has--

about four thousand
dollars--

into building his
first refinery.

- No, higher!

Higher!

- NARRATOR:
But he struggles early on

to find an edge in the
industry.

That changes when the
most powerful man

in the country comes calling.

- Mr. Rockefeller.

- NARRATOR: The deal with
Vanderbilt gives him cheap

shipping rates and
the chance

to corner the U.S oil market.

But he's over-promised,
agreeing to supply sixty

barrels a day, when his
capacity is less than half that.

And when you've made a deal
with the most powerful man

in America, failure
is not an option.

- DONALD TRUMP: You
have to be smart,

you have to have vision,
you have to have

all these different things,
but the most successful people

are the people that
had the right idea

but never ever quit or gave up.

The people that really
succeed in life

are those that don't quit.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller needs
to quickly expand his company,

and to do that,
he needs investors.

The problem is, kerosene
is getting a bad name.

Stories of the fuel
exploding and burning down

homes are on the front
page of newspapers

across the country, making
potential investors skeptical.

Due to high demand, many
refiners are rushing

to market with
dangerous kerosene

that's extremely volatile.

Rockefeller sees the
problem as an opportunity.

He realizes that there's a
need to calm

the public's fears and provide
them with a product

they can rely on.

- ROCKEFELLER: Oil refining.
Warehouses. Barrel making.

And shipping facilities.

- Why the name?

- Because Standard Oil
will be the only company

in the industry to
guarantee a uniform

quality of kerosene.

- JERRY WEINTRAUB:
The Rockefellers,

and all these guys, they
were all great salesman.

At the end of the day,
it's the salesmen

who make the money.

- STEVE WYNN: Well, you
can certainly understand

how Rockefeller could've
named his oil company

Standard Oil.

Pretty ambitious,
organic name.

He was creating a
standard, and, it worked.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller's
Standard Oil quiets fears

and immediately becomes the
most sought-after product

in the country, bringing
in investor after investor.

America is
expanding rapidly.

Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroads
have united the country,

and commerce now
moves faster than ever.

But America's newest
obsession is light--

clean, safe light.

The kind provided
by John D. Rockefeller.

Oil is changing the world.

And the Ohio refiner
is leading the charge.

- RICHARD PARSONS:
The titans of that day

revolutionized
business in America.

We became the sort of
dominant economic force

in the world because
we could make stuff,

we could create stuff,
we could build stuff,

we could power stuff.

- NARRATOR: John Rockefeller's
Standard Oil is now

the largest producer of
refined kerosene in the country.

And his exclusive deal
with Vanderbilt allows him

to ship his project to
homes throughout

the country at incredibly
cheap rates.

But for Rockefeller,

it isn't enough.

He's outgrown his
deal with Vanderbilt.

Once unable to fill
Vanderbilt's trains,

now he has more oil than
the Commodore can possibly ship,

and Vanderbilt's
biggest competitor knows it.

Tom Scott is the president

of one of the largest train
lines in the country.

He wants to take
Vanderbilt's place

as King of the Railroads,
and he knows a deal with

Rockefeller is the key.

Scott heads to Cleveland
with his protégé,

a young up-and-comer
named Andrew Carnegie.

As Scott's most
trusted lieutenant,

Carnegie has helped
craft the pitch.

- What's I'm proposing
is an alliance between--

- ROCKEFELLER: You want a cartel
between oil and railroads.

- I prefer to
call it by its--

- Give me the numbers.

- Standard Oil will
receive a forty percent

rebate for every
barrel it ships.

- SCOTT: We'll send
papers over in the morning.

- No.

A verbal contract is fine.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller
gets a better deal from Scott

than he ever could've
gotten from Vanderbilt.

- VANDERBILT: The shyster.

- NARRATOR: The Commodore
has lost his competitive edge.

- J.S. STILES: To the great
frustration of Vanderbilt,

Rockefeller very
skillfully played

those railroads against
each other.

Oil was something
the railroads

couldn't afford to let go,
and so they fought very hard

to get that traffic.

- NARRATOR: With
the railroads in his pocket,

Rockefeller can supply
every home in the nation

with Standard Oil kerosene,

and with all that profit,

Rockefeller begins to
buy out his competitors.

- ROCKEFELLER: We
need to stand together.

I'm offering all
of you a way out,

so you can hold
your heads high.

The opportunity to sell
to Standard Oil

will be a godsend
to you all.

If you take
Standard Oil stock,

you and your loved ones
will never know want.

- NARRATOR:
His intent is simple:

he wants to own

every refinery in the country.

It's a concept that's been
impossible to execute.

Today, we know it
as a "monopoly".

But Rockefeller isn't just
expanding his company,

he's also looking to
maximize profit--

by any means necessary.

- We've got
another refinery.

One more into the fold.

- Do you want me to
take a look at it?

- No. I want you
to shut it down.

- The business of
creating monopolies,

crushing opposition--
part of me says he did that

because it was
there to be done,

and he could do it better
than anybody else

and he made a bloody
fortune out of it.

- NARRATOR: By the time
he's finished,

Rockefeller controls
ninety percent

of the North American
oil supply.

His company, Standard Oil,
is the country's first monopoly.

At thirty-three,
the Ohio oil man

is now the most powerful man
in the country.

The Commodore has
created a monster.

He realizes that the only
way to combat Rockefeller

is for the railroads to
start working together.

He forms an unlikely
alliance with his biggest rival,

Tom Scott, and together,

they agree to pull all
of Rockefeller's deals.

- ROCKEFELLER: Thank you.

- NARRATOR:
To Rockefeller, the move

is nothing short
of a declaration of war.

America is emerging as one of
the mightiest nations on earth.

The country is now crowded
with rail lines

and kerosene lights
most homes.

The amazing evolution has
been led by two men driven

by a desire to create a
world that few imagined.

"Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt
and John D. Rockefeller

have sparked the modernization
of the country.

But the former partners'
interests are no longer aligned.

Vanderbilt has formed
an unlikely alliance

with Tom Scott, aimed at
forcing their biggest client

to pay going rates.

John Rockefeller sees
their actions

as a declaration of war,

and he's not going down

without a fight.

- H.W. BRAND: John Rockefeller
had the ruthlessness

that sometimes come
from utter conviction

that what he was doing was
right, and not just correct,

but divinely inspired, and
the people who opposed him

weren't really entitled
to their point of view,

because their point
of view was wrong.

It was almost as though they
had turned aside God's grace.

Well, if you turn aside
God's offer of grace,

then expect no mercy.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller is
determined to find

another way to
transport his oil.

He knows if he can't,
the railroads will win.

Rockefeller's solution
again comes

from the most unlikely
of places.

- So we can increase the
yield of the kerosene,

but then we get more
of the volatile waste.

We can burn some of it off
as fuel in the refinery,

but its high flammability
creates a storage problem.

When we get to higher
temperatures

we can start creating
the lubing oils.

I'll need to reconfigure
the refinery.

- NARRATOR: Oil in the refinery
is moved using large pipes,

and Rockefeller realizes
if those pipes can transport

oil over
short distances,

they could also be used
over longer distances.

If Rockefeller can build
a pipeline large enough,

he'll be able to cut
the railroads

out of the oil business,
for good.

The pipeline will require
a massive investment,

and incredible risk.

But if he gets it right,
Rockefeller will be able

to do what he loves
to do most, win.

- It probably comes early
in an entrepreneur's life

where you realize you're
willing to do things

in the business world that other
people aren't willing to do.

Everybody has got ideas,
and everybody's got

ambitions, but most people
aren't willing

to cross that line, and
I think an entrepreneur

that's successful,
that's your nature.

Wherever there's change,
wherever there's uncertainty,

there's opportunity.

- NARRATOR: Rockefeller's
workers labor around the clock--

- (explosion)

- NARRATOR: --blasting
through the countryside,

and laying over a mile and
a half of pipeline every day.

- JACK WELCH:
Business, in the end,

is understanding
the playing field.

Tell me who's on it,
what their strengths are,

what their weaknesses are,
and what is your checkmate play,

to top 'em, and nail 'em.

And so you're always in
that competitive game.

You're looking
at innovation.

You're looking
at leap-frogging,

trying to get
ahead of them.

You're never complacent.

You're semi-paranoid
about what they're doing.

That's what the
game is all about.

- NARRATOR: By the time the
pipeline is complete,

it's over four
thousand miles long,

stretching across
Ohio and Pennsylvania,

and connecting thousands
of the world's most

lucrative oil wells directly
to Rockefeller's refineries.

John Rockefeller has
finally found his way

to eliminate the railroads
from the oil business,

and in the process, he's
forever revolutionized

the way oil is transported.

- (train whistle blows)

- NARRATOR: For twenty-five
years, the railroads have been

the biggest industry
in the country,

the backbone of the
American economy.

No one has ever had the nerve
to take them on, until now.

Rockefeller knows
that without his oil,

the railroads will
struggle to stay alive.

It's a colossal blow
to the industry,

and with all
that leverage,

Rockefeller has Vanderbilt
and the railroads

right where he wants them.

The United States of
America is changing

like never before.

In just a decade, the
country has become

one of the most advanced
on earth,

and darkness no longer
means the end of the day.

Two men have driven this
remaking of the country.

John D. Rockefeller and
Cornelius Vanderbilt

are locked in a
battle of wills.

- Commodore.

- Mr. Rockefeller.

- NARRATOR: Vanderbilt and his
competitors are in drastic

search of passengers and
cargo to fill the trains

running on their lines.

- In the 1870s, the
country needed to be connected

via railroads,
and what happens

then is everybody who thinks
they have an edge

in the railroad business goes
out and raises money

and they start
their own railroad.

And what happened then
is we've seen happen

many of times since then, is
it created a huge bubble.

- NARRATOR:
John D. Rockefeller's oil

makes up nearly forty percent

of the cargo shipped
on the rails.

But when Vanderbilt teams
with his biggest rival

to push for a rate increase,
Rockefeller takes it

as a declaration of war.

He builds a pipeline
in response,

and begins to pull
his shipments.

And since the railroads
have been drastically overbuilt,

losing cargo
means losing money.

Stocks plummet as
investors run scared.

- When prices get
out of control,

and smart people decide,

"Wow, this thing is a bubble,
I want out",

then you can get a
collapse very quickly.

- NARRATOR: By the time the
Panic is through,

one-third of the country's
360 railroad companies

have gone bankrupt.

- ALAN GREENSPAN: Every
crisis of this type,

whether it's 2008,

or 1873,

has got the same roots.

Namely, that it
was unanticipated.

So a necessary condition for a
crisis is nobody expects it.

- NARRATOR: The crash
is the worst America has seen

in its short history.

Unsure how to prevent
a complete collapse,

the stock exchange shuts
down and stays closed

for ten straight days.

- H.W. BRAND: The Panic of
1873 triggered

the first full-blown national
depression,

and nobody quite knew
what to do about it.

For the first time,
large--very large--

numbers ofAmerican workers
were without jobs.

Workers got laid
off, but the owners,

they still lived
in the style

that they were
accustomed to.

But no one was shedding any
tears for John D. Rockefeller.

People were saving their
tears for themselves,

when they found
themselves out of work,

out of their homes, out
of food, out of hope.

- NARRATOR: While many
of the biggest companies

in the country
struggle to survive,

Rockefeller sees opportunity,

his belief in the survival
of the fittest kicking in.

As his competition
collapses,

Rockefeller
picks them off,

buying out bankrupt oil
companies for next to nothing.

- DONALD TRUMP: I find
that I do better in bad markets.

I buy things
in bad markets.

And, you can't do that
in a great economy.

You can't buy it.

Either you're gonna buy it
very expensively

or not be able to buy
it at all.

So there's a lot of
opportunity, I find,

in the bad times.

- NARRATOR: By the time the
depression is through,

Rockefeller has created

the largest corporate empire
in America.

- H.W. BRAND: He was playing
the game of industry,

and he was simply better
at it than everybody else.

He saw the industrial
marketplace

as a place for the survival
of the fittest,

and he was fitter
than anybody else,

therefore he survived.

Not only that, therefore
he deserved to survive,

and they didn't.

- NARRATOR: While Rockefeller
expands his company,

his adversaries
at the railroads

are struggling to survive.

Then, at the height
of the depression,

the king of the
American railroads,

Cornelius Vanderbilt,

dies, at the age of 82.

Vanderbilt leaves
his empire,

worth over one hundred
million dollars,

to his son, William.

Rockefeller knows that
without Vanderbilt,

he would've never been
able to build his empire.

- (train hisses)

- NARRATOR: But Rockefeller's
last remaining adversaries

refuse to go down
without a fight.

Tom Scott, and his
protégé, Andrew Carnegie,

have managed to survive.

And since Rockefeller's
pipeline doesn't extend

to Pittsburgh, he's forced
to continue to use their trains.

But Scott knows if he and
Carnegie don't diversify,

they won't survive.

Scott devises an
aggressive plan

to expand his empire.

One that's sure to catch
Rockefeller's attention.

He's going to break
into the oil business

by building a pipeline
of his own.

But if there's one thing
John Rockefeller

hates more than anything
else, it's competition.

Tom Scott is in for war.

- ROCKEFELLER: I've tried to be
friendly to the Pennsylvania.

I've given you plenty
of business, have I not?

And now, I find that
you're invading my field.

And that, my
friend, is piracy.

- We'll take your
feelings into account,

Mr. Rockefeller.

- Two thirds of the oil
you carry comes from me.

If you don't retreat, I'll take
it to the other railroads.

- As far as I'm aware,
there isn't another railroad

that runs from
Pittsburgh to New York.

- NARRATOR: America's growth
after the Civil War is driven

by railroads uniting
the country,

and oil lighting the way.

No one has capitalized
on the growth

more than
John D. Rockefeller,

who now
controls ninety percent

of the U.S oil market.

With the death of
Cornelius Vanderbilt,

only one man stands in
the way of Rockefeller's

complete control of oil,

Tom Scott.

- H.W. BRAND: There was a sort
of mutual admiration

among the big capitalists, but
it was an admiration

that was accompanied
by deep suspicion.

The big capitalists of the
day eyed each other very warily.

Rockefeller looked
on Tom Scott,

of the Penn Railroad,
as a competitor.

- NARRATOR: Tom Scott's trains
transport oil to

and from Rockefeller's
refineries in Pittsburgh,

where the Standard Oil
pipeline doesn't reach.

With all that leverage,
Scott is confident

he has the ammunition to
take on Rockefeller.

But Rockefeller isn't one
to back down from a fight.

- I don't want one drop
of our oil traveling

on the Pennsylvania.

- But what about
the Pittsburgh refineries?

- Shut them down.

- NARRATOR: Shutting down
his refineries will cost

Standard Oil a fortune
in lost revenue,

but for Rockefeller,
crushing his competition

matters more than
anything else.

Without Rockefeller's oil,
Scott loses nearly

half of his business,

forcing him to lay off

tens of thousands of workers,
and drastically cut wages.

Those workers take to
the streets in protest.

And as darkness
falls on Pittsburgh,

they turn violent.

- (shouting)

- NARRATOR: A fire is set
in Tom Scott's train yards.

- (shouting)
- (explosion)

- NARRATOR: Before
the night is over,

more than thirty-nine
buildings

and over twelve hundred
train cars are destroyed.

Tom Scott's company
lays in ruin.

- H.W. BRAND: This is how
capitalism works.

The railroads had been
the big suppliers

of transportation in
the oil industry,

and so the railroads
quite naturally resisted.

They dug in their heels
whenever they could.

Eventually they lost.

- Come on.

Let's go.

- NARRATOR:
John D. Rockefeller

has replaced
Cornelius Vanderbilt

as the richest
man in America.

His net worth is now
over $150 million,

or $225 billion today.

- JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV:
It's dazzlingly amazing

that one individual was able to
corner about ninety-eight

percent of all the
kerosene and eventually

all production
in the world.

He was a brilliant
business person.

I can only give him
credit for that.

I don't have to give
him credit for

the way that he became
that powerful.

- NARRATOR:
But all titans are targets.

And now Rockefeller is
about to come face to face

with his biggest
challenge ever.

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