Historical Drama Fiction

In 1863, under the instigation of his former associate, Daniel Drew, the New York State Legislature betrayed Commodore Vanderbilt, withdrawing the permit for his extension of the Harlem Railroad. The lawmakers and Drew then shorted Harlem stock. This play of counteraction portrays the most competitive businessman of the nineteenth century.

As the southernmost line in New York State, the Erie Railroad in the 1860s ran from Jersey City to Lake Erie. Commodore Vanderbilt considered it an appropriate expansion to his New York Central and tried to corner Erie's shares. This drama represents how three of Erie's directors, Jay Gould, Jim Fisk and Daniel Drew, fought a financial war to check his acquisition. But the main part to Vanderbilt belongs as the most triumphant American of the nineteenth century.