A 60,000 Square-Foot Summer ‘Cottage’

“Any fool can make a fortune; it takes a man of brains to hold onto it.” “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt   NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND — CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s great-grandfather lived large, mostly because Cornelius Vanderbilt the First built an empire centered on steamships and steam engines. He was personally worth $100 million at the time of his death in 1877, back when that amount provided a lot of power. His son, Billy, managed to double the family fortune. Cornelius Vanderbilt II (nicknamed “Deuce” by me) and his brother William proceeded to start spending the late...

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