History Channel - The Men Who Built America (2012) Part 6 Owning It All

The Men Who Built America

John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan rose from obscurity and in the process built modern America. Their names hang on street signs, are etched into buildings and are a part of the fabric of history. These men created the American Dream and were the engine of capitalism as they transformed everything they touched in building the oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobile and finance industries. Their paths crossed repeatedly as they elected presidents, set economic policies and influenced major events of the 50 most formative years this country has ever known. From the Civil War to the Great Depression and World War I, they led the way. Using state of the art computer generated imagery that incorporates 12 million historical negatives, many made available for the first time by the Library of Congress, this series will bring back to life the world they knew and the one they created. The event series will show how these men took a failed experiment in democracy and created the greatest superpower the world has ever seen. We see how their historic achievements came to create the America of today.

Part 6: Owning It All

With an investment from Morgan, the Edison Electric Company is created and begins wiring homes in New York. A rival, Nikola Tesla, soon emerges with a different technology for electric light. Edison is convinced his is better and goes to war with Tesla. As things escalate, Morgan begins to lose faith. Eventually, Tesla’s technology prevails and his theory of Alternating Current (AC) becomes the standard. Morgan fires Edison and renames Edison Electric Company as General Electric (GE). GE is still one of the biggest companies in the world today. Edison vows never to work with electricity again. He begins work on his motion picture camera.

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