These roads were built by different companies, with no idea of joining them all into a through line. When, in time, there was talk of this the Utica people did not like it. They thought that it would ruin the business of their town if passengers and freight need not be changed there and if trains went rushing through. But after a while all the links between New York and Buffalo were forged into one chain, or became a “trunk line,” to put it in the modern way. Of course it would cost less to haul Genesee flour or Niagara county apples to New York if they could go through in the same car in which they were first locked. This soon became so plain that there was no further question as to uniting the various roads. We shall see how they all became one. Cornelius Vanderbilt was of Dutch descent and was born on Staten island in 1794. He grew up in the steamboat business, and by industry and foresight became the owner of various lines plying on the Hudson, along the coast, and even across the Atlantic. He had so much to do with shipping that at length he was known as “Commodore” Vanderbilt, although this was a nickname and not a real title. By and by he began to buy railroads, and by 1869 he was able to unite those of the Hudson and those west of Albany into the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. His descendants have bought or leased many other roads, which, taken together, are often called the Vanderbilt system. This reaches far westward into many states and joins other great cities to the metropolis by lines of steel. [Illustration: FIG. 20. ROUNDING THE NOSES, MOHAWK VALLEY]