The Men Who Built America Summary

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The second episode of “The Men Who Built America” revolves around a man named Andrew Carnegie who becomes one of the men who builds Modern America by creating the largest steel industry. This episode starts out with a back story of Carnegie. He started working at the age of 12 in 1853 to keep his family going. He would work for Tom Scott at a railroad company in Pennsylvania. Later in the year 1868, Tom gives a task to Carnegie of building a bridge from St. Louis out into the west. Around this time bridges were not so easy to build cause one of four bridges would be demolished in America due to its weakness. With this in mind, Carnegie comes up with the idea of using steel for the bridge. The only problem was that steel was expensive to make and hard to get. Carnegie…show more content…
Later on in his life steel would be a booming industry with the idea that Carnegie had to use Carnegie Steel for buildings out in cities such as New York. Carnegie Steel would be the first steel to create the first ever skyscraper. As a turnout, profits in his steel industry would increase even more. But with this came a rivalry between Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The beginning of their rivalry caused Carnegie’s former boss Tom Scott to be demolished from buisness in which he would later then die. At this point in time, Carnegie had his eyes set on avenging Scott by continuing to raise the profits of his industry so that he can become more successful than Rockefeller and his oil industry. With this rivalry happening Carnegie recruits Henry Frick to aid him on his road to success. Unlike Carnegie, Frick is almost the exact opposite of Carnegie in personality and his methods of work. Frick mainly uses sheer force and his high standing opinion to get his way of certain deals. Carnegie is aware of Frick as a person and of his past, but to him he is an ally not

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