Morgan teamed up with Anthony Drexel, a rich financier, and founded Drexel, Morgan and Co. Two years later, he had enough money to refinance the Civil War debt with bonds worth $1.4 million. By the beginning of the twentieth century, he controlled 70% of the steel industry and small portions of other large companies, including General Electric Co. His company, now called J.P. Morgan & Co., is now one of the biggest, most powerful banking firm in the world. One of the main reasons J.P. Morgan was so successful was because of the railroad system. He was extremely involved with consolidating the nation’s railroad system. When William Vanderbilt approached him about the sale of $250,000 in stock in the NYC Railroad, he went up drastically in the financial world. Between 1885 and 1888, he extended his railroads to Pennsylvania and Ohio. By 1900, he ended up with over ⅙ of the nation’s railroad.
While Morgan was seen by some as a bad man, many saw that he was a very generous and hardworking man. He donated money to charities, churches, hospitals, and schools. He gave some of his best works of art to museums, including the Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He supplied the US government $550,000 a month as well as helping pay finances for the