Touring The Most Expensive Gilded Age Mansion in America

The Breakers. One of the last great monuments of a family that once ruled American high society. Before Cornelius Vanderbilt, wealth was never the end game. It was the foundation for something much larger. Legacy. Over 130,000 square feet. 70 rooms. 33 bedrooms. 20 bathrooms. 27 fireplaces. 5 floors, including the basement and tunnels. And 13 acres of prime Newport real estate. So the price of this house has been estimated, on the conservative side, at just about half a billion dollars. Now to get that figure, the land itself, they say, is worth just about 78 million. Again, that's 13 acres of prime Newport oceanfront land. The house itself, right behind me, this behemoth colossal structure, they say, is worth just around 313 million dollars. And to top it off, all the art and furnishings inside the house, they say, is worth right around 78 million dollars. Giving us that grand total, again, on a conservative amount of 500 million dollars. And again, I think that's kind of on the lower end, because as you've seen, or as you're about to see in the video, this is a one of one. This is, in my opinion, the pinnacle home in America. Now to understand how this American palace came to be, we first have to understand the history of the Vanderbilt family who manifested it. America was young and hungry for greatness when Cornelius Vanderbilt, a man with little education but immense ambition, set out to build an empire. Born in 1794, Vanderbilt tapped into the power of steam and steel, connecting the nation through railroads and shipping, carving his place as one of the richest men in history. When Cornelius died, his son, who he was not very fond of, William Henry Vanderbilt, took the helm and he doubled the family fortune his father built, pushing the Vanderbilts into a realm of wealth that almost seemed mythic. Then came Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the grandson and third generation Vanderbilt, who left his ego and his appetite for power unchecked, ultimately dreaming up the Breakers. A fortress on the cliffs of Newport designed to stand as a testament to the family's legacy. It was here, amid halls of gold leaf and rooms of marble with semi-precious stones inlaid, that the Vanderbilts envisioned their lasting place in history. Like all empires built on fortune, the Vanderbilt dynasty began to falter. The vast fortune that once defined them slipped away, scattered by changing industries and endless spending. This home is the story of the Vanderbilts, a family that rose to the heights of American royalty, only to watch their empire slowly dissolve into cultural memory. Imagine if you will, it is the summer of 1895. The orchestra is blaring as Cornelius Vanderbilt II descends down this staircase with his daughter, about to introduce her to all of New York high society. Lining the gallery above, all eyes are on her. This is American royalty. Let's be honest, this is a palace. This is not a home. I think there's this misconception in America that we don't have architecture that rivals Europe. But in this video, we are going to give you an in-depth tour, I believe for the first time ever, of the Breakers Mansion, starting here in this great room. This room is 50 foot by 50 foot by 50 foot. For instance, you could probably place a three-story home in this great room. That's how much volume is in this space. Given that this is a Renaissance home, if you look up, this would technically be an atrium. But because we are in New England, you have the next best thing, a windswept sky painted on the ceiling here. Let's just focus our attention again towards the ceiling. This is all casted plaster. And there is tons of symbolism and sacred geometry throughout this whole house. For instance, you have the flower of life going around the corner of this entire room. Various types of marbles from all over the world. Again, looking up, you have the Vanderbilt family crest with the three acorns. You'll find that throughout the entire house. This is like my Super Bowl. I have looked at this house online for so many years. And to be standing in this room, it's nothing short of surreal. Looking up, we have these four chandeliers. And I want to point this out. So these were not only electric, but gas. And this is one of the first homes in America that had electricity. So not only did you have the electric current, you had gas. So these were fire-lit chandeliers. Imagine that. All of New York's high society in this room, all the power in this emerging nation in this one room. Those chandeliers are so heavy that they're actually anchored to the steel beams at the top of the house. And this home is a free mason structure, meaning that it is just stone, steel, and brick holding up this house, which is nothing short of incredible. I do believe that people were able to build homes like this back in the day because maybe the collective consciousness was a bit higher. Maybe people had more time to devote themselves to their craft. So I'm going to break down some of the details, even with this stair. So they wanted to have a very regal flow. These risers are actually two inches shorter than the average staircase. And even when I was descending down, I felt just an air of elegance as I made my way into the center of this great room. I do want to point this out just because this is the head of the home right here. This is a bust of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. And as you go throughout the space with me, you'll see numerous paintings of him. So again, this is the heart of the house. This is the main hub. This is where everything happened. All of the big events, the making right off of this staircase. Look at this. Here's another oil painting of the man himself. He's actually not in this box. This is a rare piece of history. This was actually from the 19th century. And the paintings are from the 15th century. This is essentially an Italian dowry box where the dowry for the bride would be given on the day of the wedding. But from the main room, the great room, we are now going into the jaw-dropping formal dining space. First thing that you're going to notice again, looking up, you have these two enormous Baccarat crystal chandeliers in here. And again, these were fitted also for gas along with electricity. You can actually see there's these little circular cords you could pull down to adjust the flame height. It's one of the rooms where you walk in here and you feel it deep in your soul. Just with all the ornate details, for instance, look at the size of this marble fireplace. Look at the sheer proportions of the space. The columns in the space, these are actually rose alabaster. These are single pieces of marble that were turned on a lathe. Typically columns, they are stacked on top of each other. And it's very rare that you find one giant chunk of marble for a column. And now we have the light pouring into the space. Again, if you look up the cornice, you have the flower of life at the bottom of the cornice going around the entire space. And all of the intricate carvings, if you were to bring them down from the ceiling, they would be around the size of me. They are literally life-size carvings up on the ceiling here. And again, we're moving into a bit of a bow art style, kind of moving away from that Italian Renaissance. And this room is nothing short of royalty. These robber barons, the Vanderbilts, the Astors, they were the royalty of America when this nation was flourishing. And it is reflected in this room right here. And another thing that makes this home so special is the majority of the furniture is original. In this dining room, we have 34 seats, again, for the top, top members of that Gilded Age class. And I want to keep our attention on the ceiling. If you look up, that is a painting of Aurora greeting the dawn, which is very fitting because we are facing due east. And you can see now the morning light is pouring into the space. It gives you that warmth and the soul in the home. And I do want to mention, this was a summer home. This was built to only serve two months out of the entire year. Put that into perspective. That's the type of wealth that they had back then. The ornateness is on every inch of this room. This is 22 karat gold leafing. And I want to just point out a few of the symbols. So if you look, you have the caduceus, which is on ambulances. It's on trash trucks. The caduceus, in more esoteric principles, was symbolic of a spiritual awakening. So you have the two snakes going up the pillar, which is symbolic of a Kundalini rising in a bit more of an esoteric sense, which kind of makes me think that back in the day, they were more in touch with, I guess, the spiritual side of things, which in America today, comment down below what you think of that, because I do believe it's lacking. So from the formal dining room, I'm going to show you something that back in the Gilded Era was totally off limits. This was behind the scenes. You would never see this, especially if you were a guest dining here. This is the butler's pantry, which in its own right is so impressive. There's a skylight in this butler's pantry with a wrap around second level terrace. This is where the food would be plated and then brought out to that grand dining room. And as you can see, this is all, I believe, original China here. Nicely displayed. You have, again, some crystal in here. And just the fact that you have a double height open air pantry. Think about your pantry at home. And then look at this pantry. And just like any Michelin star restaurant, the timing of the food is paramount. So if the guests were not ready to be served their food yet, it would be kept in this gas heating box to have the food warm. So when they were ready, it would be served. Given that this is the service hub of the house, this is actually the call box. So if you needed anything in any room in the house, this would alert the staff to come and tend to your needs. Then this was in the 1890s. They had this stuff. This is the dumbwaiter leading up to the second level. So after the dishes were washed and cleaned, they would be put in here and transported up to the second level in the pantry. In your pantry, this is a walk-in safe to store your Tiffany Silver. We're in the pantry and there's a walk-in safe. Can you imagine where there's other safes in this house? Who knows? Keep watching because this whole episode, I don't think there's ever been a home tour like this on YouTube. And I want to show you every single inch of this house continuing on through this wing here, walking through what is the flower pantry into the kitchen. And now this kitchen is unique for many reasons. One, it's bigger than most apartments in New York City. It could be a house in itself. It's unique because it's above ground. Typically, in all the other homes in this area, the kitchen was subterranean. But this was a massive effort in fireproofing the house, having the kitchen be its own separate area. And I want to point this out because I thought this was so unique. So this door was actually kept shut at all times to keep these smells from going into the main house. And then the food was actually passed. I'm not going to actually open it, but it was passed through this little hole in the door just so the smells wouldn't enter the main house. And I just want to break down this right here. This is an original cast iron stove. This isn't like your stove at home where you flip on the switch and you're immediately at the temperature. This was a furnace. These were all bays to fill with coal to get this griddle going as high as it could go. And again, I just want to show you the proportions of the space. You even have a water view from the kitchen. It's nothing short of impressive. So from the kitchen, I wanted to give you an accurate portrayal of the scale of the house. So we're now walking through the service stairwell. This is, again, behind the scenes. And this house, like I mentioned at the start of the video, is over 130,000 square feet. For perspective, a large house, like I would say a mansion, is around 6,000. This is 130,000 square feet. I almost stepped on the rug. So that's an original rug. Do not want to step on that. But we're back in the formal dining room. But from the formal dining room, welcome to the billiards room. The theme of the billiards room is to mimic the sea. You can tell by this specific type of Italian marble on the wall. Again, all bookmatched to perfection. If we look down, these are all hand-laid mosaic tiling. Again, there's the acorns there, the Vanderbilt family crest. If we look up, these arches here are all alabaster. And then there are these diamonds with semi-precious stones inlaid into the marble. Look at this. This is alabaster. Two angels holding the V for the Vanderbilt family. Just take a look at the ceiling. Again, in the middle here, there's another tile mosaic. And then you can really see inlaid into the marble, those semi-precious stones. People associate crystals with spirituality. And I can only imagine that they probably serve some purpose, maybe more than decorative, in my opinion. The Breakers is full of what we call sacred geometry, such as the flower of life and the Fibonacci sequence. Reoccurring patterns symbolize the connection between the material and the spiritual realms, bridging the finite with the infinite. And it's said when humans engage with spaces infused with these designs, they subconsciously align with a sense of cosmic order, balance, and harmony. One thing I want to mention about the billiards room is this is where the gentlemen would retire after dinner. They'd come in here and smoke cigars and mainly discuss the politics of the day. And I would infer, just based off of what we've seen thus far, they were much more diplomatic when discussing politics than, let's say, in 2024. That's all I'm going to say about that. Let's continue on. So leaving this room here. From the billiards room, these are two beautifully hand-carved mahogany doors which lead back into the great hall where we started the episode. There's actually a grotto under the main staircase here continuing with the nautical theme here with these dolphins and this massive seashell, some seating right here. And then again, this mirror so you can actually gaze in to the formal dining room from this little grotto area. And we missed this originally, but off in front of me here, this is what's called the breakfast room. And it is done in the Louis XV style here. You have gold leafing all on the walls and the ceiling, especially in the corner molding. And this room was mainly for intimate family meals. Like if they weren't having a huge event, this is where the family would eat. And actually, this table is one piece that survived from when the original breaker's house burnt down. So very rare to have that in here. And I just want to show you for a bit of a layout. This is the butler's pantry in here, which we saw earlier. So it connects nicely to the kitchen, butler's pantry, breakfast room. But continuing on, back out into the great hall. Feast your eyes on this. Now the morning sunlight is fully entering the space, illuminating all the gold leafing, all the different types of marbles in here. And then again, for scale, 50 foot by 50 foot by 50 foot. You could put a three-story house in here. It's pretty ridiculous. And making our way across to the far end of the great hall, we have this enormous fireplace here with this barrel-vaulted ceiling in what would be the arcade. And I want to point out all of these cherubs above the doors. Specifically this, you have the god Mercury front and center with these two cherubs on either side. One of them has a hammer representing the steel in the railroads. And the other one is holding onto an anchor representing steamships. Both industries that the Vanderbilts accumulated their mass fortune, giving them the means to build homes like this all across America. And for some perspective, I want to show you the scale of this fireplace. I could crawl into this thing. Right off of the grand arcade, we move into the morning room, which as you can see, has a much more delicate feeling. This is actually where the ladies and the women would retire after dinner. And I really want to point out specific details. If you spin around, Blake, we'll get a nice shot of this. This is original platinum painted on the walls here. This has never been retouched. And we have depicted eight of the nine muses here in platinum. Again, they've never been restored. Something we haven't touched on yet is the actual value of the furnishings in the art in this home. For instance, this is an original John Singer Sargent painting of Cornelius Vanderbilt II right across, very fittingly, his daughter Gladys, who actually inherited the house. And she was the one who actually turned over this mansion to the Preservation Society to preserve it. So all of America, all the world could come and get something from this beautiful home. I've said this like five times, my favorite fireplace in the house. This has to be the best example of gilded bronze. This is agate in the middle here. And this is surrounded by Campin marble. And if we look up, you can even see mirrored on the ceiling, that feminine design with these coffered ceilings inlaid with the flower of life. And I really want to point this out. The house is such a beautiful display of the masculine and the feminine. And leaving the morning room, I'm going to now show you the music room, which mainly drew its inspiration from the Paris Opera House. And a lot of you watching might recognize this room because this is where the HBO show, The Gilded Age, was actually filmed. And this room, it's a lot to take in, but I'm going to break down a lot of these specific materials, starting with white onyx inlaid into the walls here. You'll notice they're on the lower levels, even up by the ceiling here. Looking up while I have that, we have coffered ceilings again with the flower of life inlaid in that checkered pattern. And this is very unique. So above the fireplace, you have semi-precious stones inlaid into the fireplace, like you have lapis in there. And I know a bit about semi-precious stones, and they are said to have properties that can essentially affect your emotional state. And I think that is, in my opinion, one of the things that sticks out the most is that there are semi-precious stones and use of marble and other types of stones throughout the whole home, which just gives you a feeling that I've never seen that in a home. Comment below if you have. And then again, you have two of these Bach rock crystal chandeliers. This is a Steinway and Sons piano here. And then if we look up, you have this beautiful painting on the ceiling with these French musical terms. You have melody there, a chant, harmony. Overall, just making this a very, very powerful room, in my opinion. And right from the music room, we enter the library with this beautiful Circassian walnut all over the ceilings, the walls. Again, if you look up, we have those coffered ceilings with the dolphin symbols all around. That's actually Spanish leather in the walls here. Passing under this arch into the main section of the library. And behind me, that is a 500-year-old fireplace from a chateau in Burgundy that was brought across the Atlantic into this home here. Continuing with, if you look up, the coffered ceilings, all the intricate paintings of the flowers and the nautical themes. And then again, there's more gilded symbolism here with the façade of Roman antiquity and whatnot. This is one of my favorite rooms. I love the academic feeling, like I mentioned. And then on this far back wall, we actually have the original book collection. And this was Alice Vanderbilt's favorite room, the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. And I'm even looking at some of these. Yeah, these are all original books here in prime condition, nonetheless. And just for some perspective for the size of this fireplace, the scale of this house. And exiting the library, these are pocket doors here. And this is actually a prime example here. That is the Caduceus in the hand of Hermes with the wings. It could be also Mercury. Throughout history, it's been Thoth, Mercury, and Hermes, basically the same god with different names. And here he's depicted perfectly on this door, which pockets in. And if you come on this side, Blake, here, you can see it's actually mirrored to reflect the music room and the beauty of this room here. And making our way back into the Grand Hall, another look at the arcade with the barrel-vaulted ceilings, the sunlight pouring into the space. And it really gives you the feel of the fact that this was a summer home, positioned perfectly to the east to have the light flooding into the space. And with that, this is only the first floor of three floors of the house. So we're going to make our way up the grand staircase where we started the tour. Again, with those risers that are two inches lower than the average staircase. And even I'm going to stop here and point this out. Look at the details, even on the railings. Again, flower of life right here, sacred geometry. The caduceus with the snakes going up with the flame right there, the eternal flame. The symbolism in this house is pretty next level and I didn't expect that myself. So as we make our way up the staircase to this landing, we have a portrait of Alice Vanderbilt. Above her is a Flemish tapestry depicting the life of Alexander the Great. And while I'm looking up, check out that skylight with the stained glass. That was actually originally in the Vanderbilt's New York City home and they moved it here to the Breakers. And speaking of the history and the founding of the family, this right here is a painting of the Commodore. This is the man who made the fortune. Right across from him is his heir, who he wasn't quite fond of, but ironically enough, he doubled the family fortune in around eight years time. Very interesting to see the family history and how legacy plays out and wealth throughout generations can either be built or in some cases, diminished. And on the second floor here, we have these Brescia marble columns, again with the alabaster towards the top. And I want to point this out just for the sheer perspective on how large the home is. The reason why the ceiling of the Great Hall is so impressive is because some of the elements extend more than a foot down, giving such depth to this ceiling here. You see the pine cones extending down, the flowers of life blossoming open, and then again, that sky fresco on the ceiling there. So bringing it back in from all the ornamentation of the Great Hall, we're going to enter now the private spaces, the bedroom spaces, which were purposely designed to be much more, as you would say, minimal than the Great Hall, because they believe that the spaces for the family should be a place of rest and rejuvenation. And here we're in Gladys's bedroom. And as you can see by all the ropes, you can actually come yourself and visit the Breakers Mansion. We removed the ropes for the first part of the tour because we really wanted to paint the picture of what this would be like if it was a private residence, which it was. But for the rest of the tour, we're going to give you a bit more of the historical context as you would see if you came and visited the Breakers. Off of the bedroom, the first bathroom here. And this leads into Cornelius Vanderbilt II's bedroom, the head of the house, which is separate from his wife's bedroom, which was very accustomed for the time during the Gilded Age. And wait until you see his bathroom. Check this out. This would be his changing room, his dressing room, and his bathroom. And specifically, I want to mention this. You'll notice that there are four faucets. That's because in the Breakers, they didn't just have fresh water. They had hot and cold salt water from the ocean funneled into the house. And you'll see later in the episode, we're going to actually go underneath the mansion and give you a tour of the mechanics of this mansion. His tub was carved from one giant piece of Carrara marble. You see the seashell motif on the side here. And this is actually pretty unique. So after a long day of riding, they would actually come here, turn on the water, and soak their butts from sore butts from riding. And I do want to mention this. Just picture this, if you will, having a hot water salt bath. Most homes today don't have that. I've actually never... Have you seen that in a house? I've never seen that. And this was built in 1895. It was finished. Making our way, again, this is Mrs. Vanderbilt's room here. As you can see, much more feminine than Mr. Vanderbilt's, yet keeping it with the grounded red on the carpet. I love how it gives it that regal feeling. And she essentially ran the household from this room. And given the oval shape of her bedroom, you can tell that we're above the music room. And while we're looking up at the shape, look at the beautiful crown molding in there. Again, the flowers, the details are in every single room. And I want to also mention, again, this was considered more minimal than the rest of the house. And it's so extravagant still. So exiting Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom, we're going to head back into the hallway. I'll give you one more look from top down of the great hall. Just check that. It never gets old. I've been here for three days shooting. This will never get old. And then at the end of the hallway here, all the bedrooms are numbered, almost like a hotel. This is bedroom number one. As this is Gertrude's bedroom. And again, at the start of the video, when I said imagine, if you will, the introduction into high society, she was introduced into high society in this house. And she actually went on to become a pretty famous sculptor. And she actually opened the Whitney Museum in New York City. A family of underachievers, huh? But seriously, we're facing the east now. The sunlight is flooding into the room. Again, you have just the feminine feeling here with the roses on the wall. And then this would be her bathroom, which we'll get a little peek at here. Because I do want to show you this. Look at the toilet. So this is an original toilet where you actually have a pull string to flush. And the flushing mechanism is above the toilet. And then again, four faucets because you have the fresh and the salt water. And then this connects back to the hallway here. So out of the bathroom directly across the hallway, this is the second floor loggia, which essentially served as the family's living room during the summer months. And just look at the views. Atlantic Ocean smack in your face. There's actually a pretty solid surf break over there that I was not expecting. And I wish I brought my board with me. That was actually the Astor's house off to my right. But you can just see, look at the tiling on the floor above. There's a kind of canopy design. You can only imagine what it would be like in the summer here, just lounging as a Vanderbilt in the Gilded Age. And the loggia also functions as air circulation. So we're not allowed to open these now, but you can imagine all of these windows opened up, allowing the breeze from the Atlantic Ocean to flood into the Great Hall throughout the whole space. Picture that, that would be something pretty special, but we're not allowed to touch these for now. But let's actually head back into the house. Few more rooms on the second level. Back on inside to my right. All I will say about this room is, this is the one guest bedroom on the main floor with the family. The rest of the guest rooms are where the boys are staying, up on the third floor. So let's check that out. So making our way up to the third floor, again, the proportions of this stairwell match the entire house. So this is, I'd say, almost a triple-wide stairwell. If you notice here on the railing, you have the flower of life. Again, that's sacred geometry. Some people say it's linked to the fabric of creation. And it's interesting that it's all over this house. And then above us, I want to point out, look at this massive skylight making use of the natural sun coming into the space. So this is the third floor. This is the guest floor. And actually, we'll go down that way in a second. But first, I want to show you some of the bedrooms. More of this rose marble on the columns. And at the top of the column, even look, that's alabaster. And it's interesting because the mix of the different stones in the house is something that you don't really see nowadays. So here is the guest wing. Actually, you can look behind me here for a bit of perspective on the depth of the house. I'm going to briefly walk you through some of these rooms. For instance, there are so many bedrooms that on this level, they are actually numbered. So this is bedroom number 16. And as you can see here, I actually wanted to keep a bit of the history. So this is the family legacy at The Breakers. And this house is about legacy. The fact that to this day, we are still touring this house and we're still mesmerized by the construction and the details is a testament to just what they created. Like I mentioned, more use of just different types of stones. I'm not even quite sure what type of marble this is. But the fact that they took chances with different finishes is something you don't really see today. Oh, this is actually really unique. So I want to point this out before we go any further. So there was actually a painting here that covered this wallpaper. And this was a very early type of synthetic wallpaper. And over the years, the sun completely faded out. It was actually blue. And if you back up Blake, we can go over here and look. This is a watercolor of what it actually looked like when it was built. So you can really see that time has taken its toll here on the Vanderbilt Mansion. As far as who these rooms actually belong to, this was the boy's wing. So all the sons of the owner, Neely, Alfred and Reggie, this was their wing of the house. So you can imagine what was going on up here. You've got a Jack and Jill bathroom connecting these bedrooms here. And because this was the family's section of the house, again, with the bathtubs, you can see it's indicated by having not just fresh hot and cold water, but salt, hot and cold water, along with the fresh. And that was something only reserved for the family. Here's another one of the bedrooms. This is the third of the boys' rooms. And on the walls, this is actually walnut. And the floors below us are oak. And I want to point out here, I'm not sure, we can't actually go out here, but there's a side terrace facing south. And you can see in this drone shot, just imagine waking up and walking out here with your coffee, have your staff bring up your breakfast. That's my first time seeing the ocean. Look at the ocean frame now, because we're towards the back of the house. Look at the blues of the sea out of this bedroom. Again, a summer cottage, a cottage. Unreal. So now we're at the very back of the house. Another one of those bathrooms connected. You can actually see a little better in here. This is a glazed ceramic tub. And the base of the tub is actually Carrara marble here. And again, you have not just fresh water, but salt water in your summer cottage. I really hope that this is translating through the video how just obscene the details in the display of wealth is. And here we are now at the very back of the house, which I would argue could be the front, because that's what it's all about right there. The view of the sea, the view of your lawn. Again, this is 13 acres of land right on the coast here in Newport. A lot of the value of this home comes from the land itself, let alone the house, let alone all the art in the house. And here is another bust of the founder of the house, Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Dark stone on the fireplace here. And now I want to show you this view. So the bedrooms all connect interior. And then you have this grand hallway connecting all the way back to where we started. And I want to point this out. We aren't allowed out here, but if you peek around Blake, you can see, look at this sun terrace facing the sea. It's truly, I don't have the words for it. There's not only so many adjectives you can use for the scale of this place. I mean, even look, we are on the third floor. And if you even look up, we have like a barrel vaulted cathedral style ceiling here up on the third floor. We're back where we started. This is the third floor stairwell. And I want to mention this platform. So if you notice, this is a very unique design element. As far as the architecture, this platform is elevated to support the weight of the dome itself in the great hall. So you have all the steel beams under here, the plumbing and electric, and they made such nice use of it as a design feature in the house where you walk up the staircase here to this beautiful elevated platform. And above me, you have these three skylights. The symmetry in this house is unreal. And I want to actually show you back into one of these rooms. This is pretty unique. So again, this is the preservation and restoration floor. So if you pop in there, Blake, you can see all of this original furniture that is being cataloged and meticulously restored to its former glory. And there are three bedrooms here alongside of that wing that we just saw. And if we make our way back down, we can actually pop in right in front. And there's actually people currently working on restoration projects. If you want to just look right in there. Let's have her speak for it. So you're actually surveying. You mentioned you're going through and looking at how it was constructed, what potential damages are on here, and how long does that take you? So it takes me about three or four hours per furniture, per piece. I'm also taking samples of the paint and the varnish, which we're going to analyze in the lab. And sometimes you can spot, or we think we can see different hands, different carving styles that were different people being part of the construction process of the same piece. So essentially a collaboration on the piece. And another fun fact about the third floor is there has been a family elevator in this house since it was constructed. This is the third iteration of elevators in the house. The first one was actually hydraulic and the second two have been electric. But to have this still in the house. But speaking of tech, I want to show you this. This is what is called a speaking tube. So you have here it says basement and first back hall and you can actually speak and they will hear you down in the basement. It's almost like when you were a kid and you had the two cans connected with the wire and you were talking to your neighbor. That's in this house built in like 1895. This is essentially the first smart home. Like aside from the grand proportions and all the materials used, it had smart tech for the time. This is the underbelly of the house and the Vanderbilts didn't like to refer to their servants as servants. They referred to them as staff because they were working and employed by the family. So this whole wing here and in my opinion, this beautiful stairwell that is hidden from the rest of the house. This is for the staff. So there were 20 staff that were inside the house and then 20 staff that worked the land. And back here we have 33 guest bedrooms and we'll pop into a few of them. This was actually the staff kitchen back in the day. It's empty now. But even you can look in the staff kitchen. Check this out. A view like this. And just to really reiterate that. So in total, there are 48 bedrooms in this house and in this section of the house for the staff, there are 33 of the 48 bedrooms. And we're gonna give you a quick little peek at just what a few of them look like. So just check that out Blake down there. And with those 33 bedrooms, there's more bedrooms up here on this next level. So just for the scale of the house, this whole wing is for the maintenance and running of this house. And I've said it like 10 times, this was a summer cottage. What the actual? It's a summer cottage. They were here two months a year and they were here mainly because the constraints of high society in Manhattan didn't apply. So people just went wild in this house and there's still more to see. Wait till you see this. So this is the front approach to the house. It is almost a monument. It is so large. If we were in Washington DC and that was a monument behind us, it is that large. And I hope you get that perspective with me in the frame and the house in the background. We are now at the main entrance of the breakers and behind me is the front gate. This is Indiana lime sown here. This surrounds the property again, 13 acres of land. In front of me is the house and to my left, this is actually the caretaker's cottage because this is technically a summer cottage, but this is actually the caretaker's house. And we are about to actually go underneath the breakers to the, I guess, the workings of the house. So this you can actually tour when you come visit the breakers. This is technically a specialty tour and I am so excited to see this because apparently, especially in New York, a lot of these older cities were built on top of each other. So the tunnel system, especially in a house like this, oh wow, we're going down. I didn't realize we were going this far down. Look at this. It's essentially like a fallout shelter. What? So this is my first time seeing this. Welcome to the boiler room. So off to my left, these are the coal chutes. So from the sidewalk, the coal would be shoveled down into here and it took 250 tons of coal per year to heat this house. That's almost a ton of coal per day. And the reason they had this off the house is because the original structure actually burned down and it was top priority to make sure that it was as fire safe as possible. Hence why this is way removed from the house. And just look at this furnace. This is massive. This is industrial size here. The coal was then shoveled into these two mils 44 boilers with an indirect hot water system heating the entire house. You can see the massive pipes here which would bring the hot water to the house. And if you look up, this is steel reinforced barrel vaulted ceilings and I love how they actually have skylights in here. This could have easily been a dungeon, but they have these nice skylights letting in tons of light into a space that would otherwise be hidden beneath the house. I think that's a really unique factor that they've put in skylights here. And if we continue on, off to my right, check this out. This is a tunnel that connects to the service quarters of the house. And again, this is my first time seeing this. So we're seeing it together in real time. Check this out. Again, you've got barrel vaulted ceilings reinforced with steel. Oh, wow. And this is a picture of the construction of the house with horse and buggy. Again, it's a Freemason stone structure here. So you have just the limestone and the brick being built right on site there. Wow, check this one out. And then there's another picture. So I guess this is like a timeline tunnel here. So this is a bit further on. That's so incredible to see. Look at all the stones here. Just wow. This is technically one of the world's first prefab homes. So as they were building this, there were designers in Italy and France working on the interiors while they were creating the actual exterior of the house. And here's just another progress photo. Now you're seeing the shape of the house as it looks today. And this just keeps on going. Oh my God, look how long this is. Essentially for a visual, we are going from the gate down the driveway all the way to the house. Either end had steel reinforced doors. So if there was a fire, it was stopped right here. The house was safe. Another progress picture here. Really taking shape. The roof is now on the house. You can see all the scaffolding. There were 29 contractors with I imagine a total workforce, probably close to a thousand people to create this summer cottage. And now we have the scaffolding taking down. That's what the house looks like today. And it just keeps on going. Again, all the plumbing here, electric. Oh, this is really unique. Look with the landscaping in now. That's so unique to see because those aren't there anymore. Those evergreens. And this is that steel door I was talking about where if there was a fire, this was shut immediately. The house was preserved. This is such forward thinking for a time so long ago. This right here is the original switchboard, which actually was in use until the 1990s. When the house was first built, it was run on DC current and shortly after switched over to AC. And if you know the history between these three men right here, a lot of competition between these guys and eventually Westinghouse took on Tesla and the rest is history. We all know who won the current war, so to speak. And if you'll notice the switchboard is actually made of white marble solely because it did not conduct heat. So it was a safety feature. And also it looks stunning. This is almost a little look into the history of America and specifically the industrial revolution because this home directly reflects the technology that came about during that time period. So this is the original Otis elevator hydraulic motor right here. It's not used anymore. If we may go over here, this is a nice little exhibit on the actual architecture of the house and how the innovation of building with steel enabled them to build structures that they couldn't have done before just on Freemason load-bearing structures. So you have the Eiffel Tower, the Crystal Palace and the Brooklyn Bridge were three structures that really were forward thinking and use steel to make things that previously would have never been made. And the innovation of steel is reflected in this house right here. So moving on to plumbing, this home was built in a time when most Americans didn't even have one bathroom. The Breakers has 27 bathrooms. And here's a breakdown of all the water systems that fed the bathroom. So you had the city water, which was not potable here. You had fresh water, which was actually rainwater beneath the terrace in the back. You had 9,000 gallon rainwater collecting barrels underneath the back terrace here for the fresh water. And then you had salt water pumped directly from the ocean into the house, which was all pumped to the fourth floor. And then gravity did its thing. And that's the water system in this house. For the time, very impressive. And the house was actually switched over to geothermal heating fairly recently. And here the tunnels continue. And you have to imagine, we're showing you this tunnel because it's a part of the tour. Imagine the tunnels that are off limits to the public. That's the thing I think of when I come down here. For instance, this is the air convection. So to pump fresh air into the house, these are the actual vents that would do that. And we actually were right below the music room for a little reference of where we're at under the house. More convection right there. This is actually an original ice box here on display with a hand-typed note from one of the descendants saying to keep that because of how historically valuable it was. This is actually very unique. This is a bit of a homage here to the hurricane of I believe it was 1939, 1938. And this is the graveyard of the damage from that hurricane. And the house obviously survived, but this just shows how extreme that storm was. Of course, the final thing on the lower level is the wine cellar. And I want to point out a date on one of these here. I believe it is this one here. Where is that? Where are we at? The 1914 one. Do you know where it is? Right here, 1914. And you have to imagine a house of this size and its peak of the fever pitch of the Gilded Age. They probably had daily deliveries of wine. You have to imagine that just given the size of the house and the size of this room, they probably had a daily delivery. Architecture has always been more than bricks and mortar. It's a reflection of our highest aspirations. Energy and motion frozen in physical form. These designs speak to our longing for balance, harmony, and connection with the divine. By preserving and more importantly, sharing these works of art, we honor the legacies of those who came before us. Visionaries who built with purpose, but more importantly with soul. Comment below your thoughts on architecture, its ability to raise consciousness, or just to let me know if any of this resonated with you. With that, I hope you're well watching this and I will see you in the next episode of Landmarked.