In 1896, financing from three major moguls fueled construction of the underground conduits leading to the turbines generating 100,000 horsepower sent as far as Buffalo, 20 miles away. One of them was called America's "greatest banker" and one of them was the richest passenger to die on the Titanic. The third investor was a family, the patriarch of which was the richest man in America until his death in 1877.
J.P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor IV, Vanderbilts