"Stephen Girard: Life and Legacy" Trailer

One learns how to make money from uncertainty. This is Delaware Waterfront. I keep my water in perfect condition and my warehouses, but the rest of it just rots. Hell's down is what they call it. Well, you've put up with it for all these years. But it cannot go on, no. Dr. Franklin, I think, would be quite pleased by your bequest for public improvements. A modern port, this Delaware Avenue, all linked by a railroad and canal. It all led all under the ground in Pennsylvania. But without a railroad and a proper port, it will never reach the market. Risk-taking is important to progress. My favorite saying that would epitomize what I feel about public life is, Behold a turtle who only makes progress when he sticks his neck out. Gerard saw that in the 40 years he'd lived in the city of Philadelphia, nobody else had tried to improve the waterfront. So in that typically Gerard way, he takes it upon himself and makes sure that happens through the restrictions in his will. He had tremendous foresight. He knew that coal was going to be really the fire behind this industrial revolution. And he decided to leave 7% of his wealth for the building of this infrastructure to bring this coal into the marketplace. No one had ever done something like this with their will before. He rebuilds, he invents Delaware Avenue as a major commercial center because he is able to persuade the governor and the mayor that they won't receive anything from his substantial estate unless they commit themselves to do that. This isn't the first time that he has put his private money to a public use. He was one of the major investors in the first bank of the United States. And we know that that was crucial for this young American economy that was really fledgling to actually grow and expand and to become stable.