How The Vanderbilt Family Lost Their Entire Fortune
By Therese Nguyen/Dec. 28, 2020 11:01 am EDT/Updated: Jan. 29, 2021 9:54 am EDT
In the late 19th century, social and technological changes allowed thousands of families to get ridiculously rich and prosper in a period called the Gilded Age, as described by Time. It was an era where flaunting your wealth publicly was all the rage, even in the face of income inequality as millions of other Americans struggled day to day. The Gilded Age was when many of the infamously wealthy families got their start, from the Rockefellers to the Carnegies to the Vanderbilts (via ThoughtCo). But while their legacy is still recognizable today, with their names plastered on universities and cultural landmarks, for many, their fortune has been gone for some time now.