Previously on the men who built America...
Bruised and battered following the long civil war.
The country has emerged stronger than ever.
American railroads have become
the largest companies in the world.
And through sheer force...
VANDERBILT: Buy everything you can.
...Cornelius Vanderbilt
has built the biggest.
We're gonna watch them bleed.
But a new industry emerges
to challenge the railroads.
Led by John D. Rockefeller.
The age of oil begins.
Soon Vanderbilt and the other railroads see oil
as an opportunity.
ROCKEFELLER: You want a cartel between oil and railroads.
But as railroad men like Tom Scott
and his protégé Andrew Carnegie take on big oil...
...Rockefeller declares war on the railroads.
Shut them down.
And brings the industry to its knees.
(Blues Saraceno playing "Save My Soul")
♪ When I got to Memphis ♪
♪ I put my old baby down ♪
♪ He said I can't take you to Heaven ♪
♪ I can't save your soul ♪
♪ I can't promise forever ♪
♪ Whoo ♪
♪ With my heart in your hands ♪
♪ I can't feel, fell my soul ♪
If everyone gathered here would now join me
in the reciting of The Lord's Prayer.
"Our Father who art in Heaven,
hollowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the power and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen."
Andrew Carnegie's mentor
is buried on a rainy day just outside of Philadelphia.
He dies a broken man.
Defeated and humiliated.
At the hands of John D. Rockefeller.
The loss is an enormous blow to Carnegie...
Without Tom Scott, Carnegie would be nothing.
Sir. Thanks.
At the age of 12,
Andrew Carnegie begins working
for a local railroad in Pittsburgh.
There, he meets the company's President,
Tom Scott.
SCOTT: Andy.
Scott takes a liking to young
Carnegie...
...Hiring him as his personal assistant.
Now, take this and this to the division superintendent.
Yes, sir.
This is for you, Sir.
Ah! Thank you.
DAVID NASAW: He never expected to work
at 12 years old, he wanted to go to school,
he wanted to grow up.
But the family had absolutely no way
of surviving without sending him to work.
H.W. BRANDS: Andy is the man of the household.
He realizes fairly early on that he's smart.
He discovers in himself an ambition.
And when Andy Carnegie showed the intelligence,
showed the nerve to take on some of the responsibilities,
Scott realized that this was
somebody to cultivate, somebody to nurture.
Tom Scott quickly advances Carnegie
through the ranks.
STEVE WYNN: Like most young people who get breaks,
luck has a lot to do with it, and timing.
And the second factor besides timing is that,
as a young man, usually all of us would admit
that there was a mentor, a benefactor.
And when an older person who you respect and admire
has confidence in you, it's a great booster
to your own self-confidence.
By age 24, Carnegie is promoted
to manager of the company.
Working closely with Scott to oversee
the railroad's expansion west.
So I bought 100,000 shares at $10 a share,
before news of the contract came out.
When the issue became public,
the shares doubled in value.
The next day, you know what I did?
I sold them.
I didn't have to build a thing.
The key is westward expansion.
CARNEGIE: Yes, sir.
Here. This is where I want the bridge.
Right here.
Think you can you do it?
Yes, sir.
I know a good designer. James Eads.
He's crazy, but he's a genius.
Bridge builder, is he?
No. But he's quick, and he's cheap.
He can do anything.
Come.
The bridge Scott has outlined...
...will be the largest in America.
The problem is, Carnegie has no idea how to build it.
A bridge spanning the Mississippi River would connect
east to west like never before.
The key to success for any railroad
is getting across the Mississippi River.
Once you get across the Mississippi river
you can move west.
The question is: How do you get
across the Mississippi river?
The bridge will have to be
over a mile long.
One in four bridges built at the time fail.
And nobody has built a rail bridge this big.
But Carnegie knows there's no reward without risk.
He invests everything he has into the bridge.
Andy Carnegie stepped up.
He decided he could do it.
One striking thing about Carnegie--and this is true
of the great entrepreneurs--
they're willing to take risks.
They're willing to roll the dice and bet,
in later days, the whole corporation,
or in this case, bet his career.
It's no good.
Why?
We can't block steamboat traffic.
We've been through this.
Show me the cantilevered one again.
It's not going to withstand the Mississippi currents.
So make it stronger.
It's impossible.
The combined forces from the passenger traffic,
rail freight and the river current will exceed
the tensile strength of iron.
The bridge will collapse.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Nothing's impossible.
STEVE CASE: You have to be patient and have perseverance
and have a sense of where you want to go,
and having the passion to still believe in your idea
even when everyone else is saying, well,
why are you wasting your time on this.
Obviously it's not happening.
But you know it's going to happen
and you never give up on that idea.
How am I supposed to make any money?
They're worth more than a dollar.
Five cents, final offer.
It's not going to withstand the Mississippi current.
So make it stronger.
Maybe if it was made out of steel...
Nothing's impossible.
Steel is the strongest material ever made.
Created by mixing iron with carbon
at over 2,000 degrees.
The problem is, it's extremely expensive,
and difficult to mass produce.
Because steel is so rare,
it's only used to make small items.
Forks, knives, and jewelry.
No one has ever tried to use steel to build
a structure this big.
Until now.
He's looking into the future.
He looks across the Mississippi and he sees a bridge.
And he's able to see that future.
And then willing to have enough confidence
in his vision to put everything he's got into it,
and he's willing to convince others
that he knows what that future is going to be.
In order to complete the bridge,
Carnegie needs to find a way to make a massive
amount of steel.
He spent a lot of time traveling.
He would go to steel mills,
he would meet with chemists, to figure out,
How do you make this steel?
English inventor, Henry Bessemer,
has created a device that cuts the time to
manufacture a single steel rail from two weeks to 1 5 minutes.
Carnegie understands the value of the new technology...
...And begins to adapt it.
RON PERELMAN: Every business has some uniqueness,
either a unique talent,
unique product, unique capacity.
And the trick is to find it,
and then find it and capitalize on it.
With the steel in place,
Carnegie is able to begin construction.
At just 33, Andrew Carnegie is poised
to realized the impossible...
...Building the first major bridge
to span the Mississippi River.
Uniting America.
But Carnegie's Decision to use steel has proven costly.
He's already two years behind schedule.
And expenses are mounting.
DEBT COLLECTOR : "Dear Mr. Carnegie: our records
show that we have not received your payment
of $35,000, which was due on August..."
"Dear Mr. Carnegie: I am writing
to notify you that despite numerous efforts
to obtain final payment for the above invoice,
I have been unsuccessful."
"This letter will serve as
formal notice to you that you are in default of your
obligation to pay the sum of $59,000,
for steel delivered to you."
"...and must now
accelerate collection efforts in accordance with..."
"...and you will be able
to settle this outstanding amount immediately."
"...and we will have
no alternative but to commence legal proceedings
against you."
DONNY DEUTSCH: I guarantee you if these guys
were alive today they wouldn't be telling you
about their successes.
They would be telling you about their early failures,
or the places they almost failed.
That's the great motivator,
and you have to be able to embrace that.
If you can't embrace both failure,
or the possibility of failure,
or the tremendous fear of failure,
you can't be wildly successful.
It's just, it's an axiomatic truth.
With no money left,
Carnegie is forced to bring construction to a halt.
His dream has become a nightmare.
But he's not going down without a fight.
The birth of Modern America is well underway.
Trains now touch all four corners of the continent.
Homes across the nation are lit at night.
And the country's most ambitious construction
project is in progress on the banks
of the Mississippi River...
...led by Andrew Carnegie.
Carnegie has insisted on building his bridge
out of steel...
...an unproven material.
With huge costs.
Construction is drastically behind schedule.
And dangerously over budget.
Carnegie is under mounting pressure.
CARLY FIORINA: The difference between people
who succeed and people who fail, I think,
Everyone experiences fear.
The difference is, what do you do with your fear?
Do you work to overcome it?
Or do you let it defeat you?
And I think that is actually what distinguishes
very successful people from others.
Desperate, Carnegie reaches out to investors,
looking for an infusion of cash.
You'll be glad to learn that the building
of the St. Louis bridge is progressing-smoothly.
I am convinced that steel is the future; however,
obtaining such a large quantity of steel
is proving to be difficult, causing us some delays.
It is also proving to be extremely expensive.
My forecast shows that we will require
another million dollars before the year is out.
But I have no doubt that in time the people
will come to see the bridge as the eighth wonder of the world.
Yours sincerely, Andrew Carnegie.
Carnegie's last-minute pitch works.
He secures the financing he needs.
And finally, after four years,
the bridge is complete.
The results are epic.
But Carnegie now faces a new problem.
In St. Louis,
one of the real problems was convincing people
the bridge wasn't going to fall.
I mean nobody had ever seen bridges like this, anywhere.
Carnegie sees all the possible uses for steel.
But before he can realize the materials potential...
...he needs to convince the public of its strength.
And he has a plan to do just that.
A popular superstition at the time,
holds that an elephant won't cross an unstable structure.
The day the bridge opens, Carnegie,
who is also a master publicist,
sets up a parade across the bridge that's led
by an elephant.
It's an incredible gamble.
But Carnegie hopes if the elephant crosses,
the people will follow.
As the people of St. Louis look
at this bridge, they see that it can sustain
whatever weight's going to be put on it.
When the stunt succeeds,
Carnegie gets more requests for his steel
than he can possibly handle.
And his biggest customer is an industry he knows well.
The railroads are looking to replace their bridges
and rails with steel.
But Carnegie can't produce enough of the new material
to fill all the orders.
He needs to increase his capacity.
And to do that, he needs to raise additional funds.
So he turns to his old mentor, Tom Scott.
With his help, Carnegie raises over $21 million
in today's money.
And with it, he builds his first steel plant.
He sees the future and he is willing
to invest where few other American entrepreneurs
are willing to invest: in these gigantic new plants.
Sprawled over 100 acres
just outside of Pittsburgh...
...Carnegie's steel mill is the largest in the nation.
Capable of rolling out 225 tons of steel a day.
JIM CRAMER: You have to believe if you're Carnegie
that you're going to have multiple years of growth
where steel is important.
The faith and optimism that someone like Carnegie
had is just off the charts vs. what we see now.
With the new plant,
Carnegie can supply as much steel as the country needs.
And make himself a fortune.
But Carnegie's timing couldn't be worse.
After years of overbuilding,
the railroads are suddenly struggling to stay profitable.
There were too many railroads at the time.
There wasn't enough traffic to sustain them.
With the railroads in dire need of cargo,
John Rockefeller sees an opportunity.
And negotiates better rates for shipping his oil.
But the struggling railroads quickly realize
their business won't survive.
And go back on their word.
Causing Rockefeller to pull his oil from the trains.
Carnegie's mentor, Tom Scott, tries to adjust.
But he can't survive without Rockefeller's oil.
His business is decimated.
And Tom Scott never recovers.
From ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.
Andrew Carnegie has lost his mentor.
The man who meant more to him than anyone else in the world.
Andy.
Now, take this and this
to the division superintendant.
You think you can do it?
Yes, sir.
As far as Carnegie is concerned,
one man drove Tom Scott to his grave.
And now Andrew Carnegie wants revenge.
America's growth following the civil war,
is nothing short of epic.
Train tracks link east to west as never before.
Oil lights homes from coast to coast.
And steel is remaking the landscape
But just when the growth looks unstoppable...
...the railroad industry--the backbone
of the American economy--collapses.
And the nation is thrown into the worst depression
it's ever seen.
Andrew Carnegie is on the brink of losing everything.
Without the railroads, he's lost his market for steel.
And he blames his bitter rival, John D. Rockefeller.
Desperate for a new market,
Carnegie notices a trend he can capitalize on.
Unemployed Americans, by the thousands
are flooding cities like New York and Chicago,
in search of work.
And to accommodate the population surge,
buildings are being constructed as fast as possible.
Carnegie brilliantly begins to see
that the future is not in rails but in structural steel,
in girders, in beams,
to build skyscrapers.
And again, he's ahead of the curve.
The world's first skyscraper is built in Chicago.
Its thin brick walls hang on a thick frame
manufactured from Carnegie's steel.
In the next few years, over 100,000
new building are erected in Chicago alone.
Until steel began to become a major product,
much ofAmerica could not have happened.
America grew up vertically on steel.
Modern America is being built using
Carnegie's Steel.
The skyscraper boom makes Andrew Carnegie
one of the wealthiest men in America.
But for Carnegie, it's not enough.
John Rockefeller's personal fortune
is seven times larger than Carnegie's.
A feat he's achieved through a calculated ruthlessness.
Carnegie believes that to avenge his mentor's death,
he must surpass John Rockefeller
as the most powerful man in America.
And to do that, he must find help from someone
even more cutthroat than his rival.
And he knows the perfect man for the job.
Henry Frick is a self-made millionaire by thirty.
He's one of the Midwest's largest coal suppliers.
A ruthless businessman, Frick has reputation
for getting what he wants...
...by any means necessary.
FRICK: Carter!
Carter!
This belongs to me now.
Carter! I know you're in there!
Hiring Henry Frick will give Carnegie
the merciless edge he lacks.
Follow me, sir.
Henry.
Andrew.
Good to see you, thank you for coming.
It's my pleasure.
Please, sit.
Thank you.
Whiskey, neat.
Now, Henry, I believe you've married
since I saw you last.
Marriage changes a man, Andrew.
Oh. How's that?
Well, let's say I've calmed down a bit.
Well, it's a noble institution, as they say.
I don't know about noble,
but it's an institution.
An institution nonetheless, right?
MARK CUBAN: The partnership between
Carnegie and Frick was analogous to the way
a good business partnership works today.
You want somebody as completely opposite
and different from you as you possibly can get.
Frick's first assignment is to get
Carnegie Steel into shape.
His boss believes that Frick will use
his toughness to cut costs and eliminate waste...
...leading to bigger profits.
Many see giving Frick so much power as a huge risk.
But Carnegie decides it's a risk worth taking.
Welcome aboard, Henry.
Thank you, Andrew.
In the end, hiring Frick may be
the worst decision of Carnegie's career.
America's unprecedented growth
is being led by a group of extraordinary men.
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt creates
the biggest railroad company in the country.
John D. Rockefeller uses standard oil's refining
capabilities to light homes from coast to coast.
And now Andrew Carnegie is using the mass produced
steel to erect buildings that touch the sky.
Making the country stronger
than it's ever been before.
Our profit margin is unassailable.
Our productivity is absolutely as good
as any steel mill in Europe or America.
Carnegie's steel empire is expanding
at a staggering rate.
In just two years, profits have doubled.
Right this way, Sir,
and I'll show you the rest.
By ramping up production,
Carnegie and Frick are able to use the proceeds
to buy competitors throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Carnegie demonstrated that if you're the first
at whatever you do, you have a huge advantage
over the people who come along later because you've got
the jump on them and very often that jump allows you
to carve a niche and to maximize your profits
within that niche.
Carnegie's personal fortune is skyrocketing.
His net worth is now upwards of $3.5 billion
in today's money.
His decision to hire Henry Frick looks like a stroke of genius.
Through intimidation and fear Frick re-negotiates
favorable contracts with suppliers.
And eliminated unnecessary expenses...
...while upping production.
Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four...
Approaching the final decade of the century,
Carnegie Steel is more profitable than ever.
Carnegie rewards Frick by making him chairman of his company.
The second most powerful man in steel.
But for Frick, it's not enough.
He wants his boss's seat at the table.
Frick's father had been a failure.
And now he wants to make sure that everyone knows
that he's not his father.
Frick, purchases land in the hills east of Pittsburgh.
On it, he builds a members only club
for some of the wealthiest men in the country.
The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club sits
on a huge artificial lake, where club members
can boat and fish.
Even Carnegie joins the club.
It doesn't seem like a problem to me,
we know who our friends are,
and we know how to please them.
Yes, and you can always buy a man.
However, If it's possible not to,
I would think that's a better--
Excuse me just for one moment.
To create their playground,
the club takes control of the South Fork dam,
holding 20 million tons of water.
The largest dam of its kind in the world.
Just 14 miles downriver lies Johnstown...
...a working class community of steel workers
and their families, who live under the constant threat
that the next rainstorm will wash away the dam.
City officials beg Frick to strengthen the dam.
But he ignores their pleas completely.
I heard there was an accident.
Well, you're right.
There has been an accident.
I can't get my carriage across this road.
Your carriage is too wide for the road, sir.
Now that is where you and I are going to differ.
My carriage is just fine.
It's the road that's the problem.
To widen the road we'd have to lower the dam, sir.
Well, there now.
That wasn't too hard to sort out, was it?
By lowering the dam, Frick weakens it.
Henry shows me the ledgers
and shows me the numbers.
And it was not the number I was expecting;
it was a little bit higher than I was expecting.
And the only question remaining
is how much money we'll make next year.
I'm a bit dry over here, Henry.
Frick is content with his club,
his image, and his wealth.
But everything is about to change.
America is in an age of unprecedented prosperity.
The country is connected cost to coast by rail.
Kerosene lamps brighten the night.
And steel is being used to build structures
no one could have imagined even a decade earlier.
Overseeing much of the growth are Pittsburgh
Steel magnates Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick.
Ideal Partners...
...Together they've driven Carnegie Steel
to massive profits.
To celebrate, they've erected
the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club...
Cheers. Cheers.
...A lakefront Members Only playground.
But construction has weakened the dam
surrounding the lake at South Fork...
...Posing an imminent threat to the lives
of tens of thousands of people in the valley below.
Memorial Day breaks in Johnstown.
As ominous clouds roll in.
Hurry on, now.
At South Fork, lake levels are rising...
...at an inch every 10 minutes.
More bags.
Go, go.
Over here.
We need more men up here.
Give me that bag.
We need more men.
Hurry up.
Over here.
Give me that bag.
John!
Get a telegram to Johnstown!
Tell them to evacuate!
We need more men.
The message reads...
"South Fork Dam liable to break. Notify the people
to prepare for the worst."
The Johnstown Telegraph office
has seen the same warning many times before.
They ignore it.
We need more at the top.
We're running out of time.
Leave it! Leave it! Let's get out of here! Now!