Billy, consolidated his position as the head of the family, that the Vanderbilt siege on New York society began in earnest. Under Billy’s stewardship, the Vanderbilt fortune ballooned, and while Billy himself was only one generation away from his father’s rough beginnings on the Staten Island waterfront, his own children—including Cornelius II (who would finish building The Breakers in 1895) and William Kissam—qualified for inclusion in society by Mrs. Astor’s rules.
