Editing Cornelius Vanderbilt (section)

==Oceangoing steamship lines==
[[File:NicaraguaMap1856.jpg|thumb|230px|A map of Nicaragua in 1856.]]
When the [[California gold rush]] began in 1849, Vanderbilt switched from regional steamboat lines to ocean-going steamships. Many of the migrants to California, and almost all of the gold returning to the East Coast, went by steamship to [[Panama]], where mule trains and canoes provided transportation across the isthmus. (The [[Panama Railroad]] was soon built to provide a faster crossing.) Vanderbilt proposed a canal across [[Nicaragua]], which was closer to the United States and was spanned most of the way across by [[Lake Nicaragua]] and the [[San Juan River (Nicaragua)|San Juan River]]. In the end, he could not attract enough investment to build the canal, but he did start a steamship line to Nicaragua, and founded the [[Accessory Transit Company]] to carry passengers across Nicaragua by steamboat on the lake and river, with a {{convert|12|mi|km|adj=on|sp=us|abbr=off}} carriage road between the Pacific port of San Juan del Sur and Virgin Bay on [[Lake Nicaragua]].<ref name="Stiles"/>{{rp|174–205}}

In 1852, a dispute with [[Joseph L. White]], a partner in the Accessory Transit Company, led to a business battle in which Vanderbilt forced the company to buy his ships for an inflated price. In early 1853, he took his family on a grand tour of Europe in his steamship yacht, the ''North Star.'' While he was away, White conspired with Charles Morgan, Vanderbilt's erstwhile ally, to betray him, and deny him money he was owed by the Accessory Transit Company. When Vanderbilt returned from Europe, he retaliated by developing a rival steamship line to California, cutting prices until he forced Morgan and White to pay him off.

He then turned to transatlantic steamship lines, running in opposition to the heavily subsidized [[Collins Line]], headed by Edward K. Collins. Vanderbilt eventually drove the Collins Line into extinction.<ref>{{cite book| author1-link=Larry Schweikart| last1=Schweikart| first1=Larry| first2=Lynne Pierson| last2=Doti| year=2010| title=American Entrepreneur: The Fascinating Stories of the People who Defined Business in the United States| url=https://archive.org/details/americanentrepre00phdl| url-access=limited| location=New York| publisher=American Management Association| pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanentrepre00phdl/page/n51 43]–45| isbn=978-0-8144-1411-8}}</ref> During the 1850s, Vanderbilt also bought control of a major shipyard and the [[Allaire Iron Works]], a leading manufacturer of [[marine steam engine]]s, in Manhattan.<ref name="Stiles"/>{{rp|217–264}}

In November 1855, Vanderbilt began to buy control of Accessory Transit once again. That same year, the American [[Filibuster (military)|military adventurer]], [[William Walker (filibuster)|William Walker]], led an expedition to Nicaragua and briefly took control of the government. Edmund Randolph, a close friend of Walker, coerced the Accessory Transit's San Francisco agent, [[Cornelius K. Garrison]], into opposing Vanderbilt. Randolph convinced Walker to annul the charter of the Accessory Transit Company, and give the transit rights and company steamboats to him; Randolph sold these to Garrison. Garrison brought Charles Morgan in New York into the plan. Vanderbilt took control of the company just before these developments were announced. When he tried to convince the U.S. and English governments to help restore the company to its rights and property, they refused. So he negotiated with [[Costa Rica]], which (along with the other Central American republics) had declared war on Walker. Vanderbilt sent a man to Costa Rica who led a raid that captured the steamboats on the San Juan River, cutting Walker off from his reinforcements from insurgent groups in the United States. Walker was forced to give up, and was driven out of the country by a U.S. Navy officer. But the new Nicaraguan government refused to allow Vanderbilt to restart the transit business, so he started a line by way of Panama, eventually developing a monopoly on the California steamship business.<ref name="Stiles"/>{{rp|268–327}}