Yerkes Builds an Empire

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The rise and fall of a Tube Titan.
Part 1: • Yerkes and the Boodle
Part 2: • Yerkes 2: Electrificat...
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Patreon: / jagohazzard

[@cooperised]

"These days, rudeness is a tactic commonly adopted by stupid people because they think it makes them look clever." There's a lot to commend about this video but this quote is near the top of the list for me!

[@PokhrajRoy.]

Jago, I commend you for the research you’ve put into this Charles Yerkes story. It’s like soap opera IRL

[@NickyMitchell85]

I agree ☝️.

[@richardharrold9736]

Shady he may have been, and I'm not sure I'd call him a genius, but Yerkes was certainly an ambitious man, quite possibly a visionary one. Certainly, London owes him a considerable debt of gratitude for sorting out the mess Watkin, Staats-Forbes, Whitaker White and others had created, turning it into the beginnings of a cohesive network.

[@emjackson2289]

"Sadiq Khan likes this post"

[@richardharrold9736]

@@emjackson2289 what has Khan got to do with this? And please let's not make this political.

[@huwshepheard3075]

How disappointing that Sir Edward Watkin had died in 1901. His observations on Yerkes would have been worth reading.

[@roderickmain9697]

One cant help but be impressed with Yerkes. He is almost the definition of loveable rogue. He made things happen and got them done and those things benefited the public at large - even if his goal was to benefit himself. You can forgive people a lot if they've done things for the greater good. Nicely done, Jago. Your are the loveable rogue to my vague knowledge.

[@andrewweitzman4006]

Even his critics found him impressive. And Theodore Dreiser wrote an entire trilogy based on the man. Not so much loveable, at least among men. He had a talent rivaling that of dodgy finances of making enemies all over the place.

[@supahas3821]

If we ever made a bingo on this channel, “Yerkes” should definitely be included

[@66PHILB]

Never mind the Tube Map, I need a flow chart of all of these railway companies and their amalgamations & takeovers. Superb video Mr H.

[@simonthompson9858]

A total tour de force re Yerkes. This is a KZbin classic. Nice one - very nice one - Jago

[@onlycompetitions5083]

And of course, Charles Tyson Yerkes is responsible for a tremendous amount of mileage on the KZbin line

[@peabody1976]

I'm glad you highlighted how one Wright made several wrongs, as you highlight the final chapter of the Yerkes series. I hope you do a full series on Mr Charles Holden (if you haven't before, I haven't rechecked to see if you had done.)

[@michellebell5092]

Wow, that was an extremely complicated history, extremely well told. So many players in the drama which has clearly lead to the complex system that is TfL UndergrounD .

[@iancarr8682]

Sir George White goes on to form the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co, later renamed Bristol Aeroplane Co.

[@neville132bbk]

Makers of the Bristol Freighter... of which at least one was until recently busy in NZ.

[@monotonehell]

Yerkes is pretty much the patron saint of this channel.

[@markignatiev7194]

Love this biography format, hope there is more to come.

[@ttaibe]

I am a flamboyant man with a moustache. Am I a) a thief B) a Yerkes wannabe C) just a man to lazy to shave my upper lip D) a liar

[@BroonParker]

You are on my Monopoly game.

[@peterjohncooper]

What an interesting and well balanced analysis of our (anti)hero. History is all about context and you did a great job of showing what was going on around Yerkes' shennanigans. Time for a deep breath and start on the phenomenon of Railway Mania itself.

[@rogerwitte]

I've really enjoyed your series about Yerkes! I agree that How about doing something similar about Frank Pick? In my opinion the cultural identity of London today bears a huge debt to Messrs. Yerkes and Pick. The branding they commissioned to sell public transport, has become London's international brand

[@davidnicholls5528]

“Frank Pick’s London” by Oliver Green, published by the V&A, is an invaluable resource.

[@bigaspidistra]

If you read through the debates in Parliament on the various possible lines, Yerkes record in Chicago was common knowledge. There was also unease about "London's Tubular Lines" being controlled by a monopoly run by an American. Some wanted a Royal Commission on "London Locomotives" which probably would have meant nothing being built for another decade or 2.

[@Quebecoisegal]

Makes you wonder how the London subways would be without Yerkes industrial input, quite a character.

[@telemachus53]

It strikes me, JH, that you should make a board game. It'll be all about the development of transport in London at the turn of the 20th century. The players could be called White or Yurkes, or Speer or... Around the board would be the various lines in their various locations and with projected profit potential. I would buy it for sure.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Ticket to Ride: Victorian London edition?

[@Illvillainy]

never has a man been so lucky by dying at the exact right time

[@ZGryphon]

Offhand, the only other roughly contemporary candidate I can think of is President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), who was one of the most popular U.S. presidents in his day, but died in office only a few weeks before the catastrophic levels of corruption and incompetence endemic to his administration became known to the public.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I like your icon :)

[@tubegirl1013]

watching this while assisting a tube challenge attempt currently on his turf😬

[@livetillyoudielovelife2299]

He was a man who trived on conflict, it made him feel alive and give him a sense of power. The time and passion you put into your videos borders on a work of love

[@kimvibk9242]

What, Boris Johnson?

[@matthewgartell6380]

I have to say Jago, that was an excellent video. I learned so much. Never knew JPM had a hand in the underground. Ironic really that 21st century London relies on a transport network conjured up by victorian snake oil salesmen. With that said, I hope Yerkes has a blue plaque?

[@johnm2012]

I don't know about a blue plaque but there's a crater on the moon named after him, which is rather nice. There's also the Yerkes observatory in Wisconsin that he financed.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Aww, I bet Yerkes could’ve somehow scammed the Chunnel into existence almost a century early if he’d lived-on.

[@ttaibe]

What about a general overview with a sort of timelapse of train lines and companies (with colors) in Great Britain?

[@757Spy]

See you at the pub for a Jago/Yerkes toast (or two)!

[@illyasvielemiya9059]

Godamn it Yerkes!

[@andrewrevans8496]

Surely the reason he chose to run to Golders Green was because it was a good place to emerge from tunnel and build a depot on the surface?

[@Sophiebryson510]

A yerkes miniseries?

[@stephenlee5929]

Yerkes Minories, sort of a gateway?

[@marvintpandroid2213]

Its that man again.... again.

[@blameless_hyperborean8638]

'Yerkes, Yerkes, He's our man, If he can't cheat 'em, No-one can.'

[@daveayerstdavies]

Battle of bushy Edwardian moustaches, what could be better?

[@chazzyb8660]

Seems to me we owe the network to Mr Yerkes, despite his best/worst intentions. And he not only gave you a great deal of excellent and amusing material Jago, but also one of the best drinking games on 'the youtubes'. Cheers Mr Yerkes! I wonder why his kidneys gave out - ah - well - perhaps I won't take that final drink…

[@johnledingham852]

Love him or loathe him, yankee Yerkes is a part of London transit history. In fact, part of LONDON history. I would never have come to learn of his very existence had it not been for my unsatiable thirst for knowledge gained through the KZbin channel of one Jago Hazzard. I have forfeited my commercial television viewing time in favour of spending time watching the Jago chap's steady flow of captivating "Tales From The Tube". Jolly good stuff indeed!

[@TheUluxian]

Your Yerkes stories have become some of my favorite content on your channel... (although everything you do is so entertaining, it really is hard to pick a fav)

[@adlam97531]

He seems to have been a very clever man, from a young age he had a head for business and lost out several times, but always came back. At the same time, he liked the high life and women, and that had to be funded, along with the bribes, so he was a rogue.

[@andrewweitzman4006]

An interesting background fact: he was a Quaker by birth.

[@Del_S]

We need a Netflix show about Yerkes that gets cancelled after two seasons.

[@adrianrutterford762]

Yep!! Charlie Boys Back!

[@timmyphillips6264]

Good old Charles Tyson Never fails to entertain 😊😊

[@cjf97]

Jago, wonderful as always. Do we think Yerkes could have got some ideas from George Hudson on how to do business?

[@highpath4776]

What the tube did , to some extent, was make the hills of (North) London irrellevant opening up an ardious slog into a swift journey, a tube doesnt care if it 50 foot below ground or 250ft (other than lift shaft length). this was the key compared even to the struggles trams would have.

[@Rog5446]

Charlie is me Darling, me Darling, me Darling.

[@snich63]

Jago has the smoothest segues into the sponsor’s message and back again.

[@johng5474]

Overall I think that TfL/LUL should remember Yerkes as a man of vision who took a disparate collection of tracks and created the start of a network. He should get a proper memorial and recognition for his part in the history of London. Maybe name their new HQ after him as thats also built by foreign pirates.

[@LauraValcarcelRodriguez]

Amazing story! I certainly admire determination on people (for bad or for good). I can't imagine anything like that done in the present, not even the big corporations and investment holdings would be able to do what an individual like Yerkes did in the past. I hope there are more Yerkes videos in the future, I'm kind of fond of his moustache now ❤or maybe a JPM spin-off 😀

[@robk7266]

A man from Chicago built the London Underground, and a man from London built the Chicago Elevated

[@teecefamilykent]

Great video sir!

[@Blade_Daddy]

More detailed convolutus - love it! 😊

[@boohaka]

A wonderful piece of work here! You’re a master of your craft!

[@zachp.3509]

at 2:30 I was like "is he ever going to stop?"

[@mattevans4377]

It wouldn't surprise me if Yerkes made a business deal with God. His life, to save his project. It would just be very fitting for him, always betting everything on his ideas.

[@richardjalabhay5586]

I hope you never stop making videos about Yerkes and I feel I'm far from alone!

[@mattheweagles5123]

Well done indeed on a tremendous video

[@AFCManUk]

The plus-side of the Cut-and-Cover method was that it removed a lot of the slums.

[@highpath4776]

? most was under the roads. There were displaced persons from housing/ work from home units particulary at the Liverpool Street area when the Eastern Counties were extending

[@AFCManUk]

@@JP_TaVeryMuch True. It certainly helped plough through the slums of Knightsbridge/Kensington though. Used to be known as the Potteries and Piggeries around there, and it was Not a pleasant place.

[@charlesmoss8119]

I’ve really enjoyed this series - fabulous story

[@baxtermarrison5361]

Back in the day, two men on Hampstead Heath build a railway, oh how times have changed! 😊

[@johnoneill5661]

Big moustache = Big crook

[@MrGreatplum]

I thought that said something else at first!

[@General_Confusion]

I recon Jago sports a dashing mustachio just like old Charlie Yerkes.

[@BroonParker]

The end of Yerkes? Say it ain't so, Charles Tyson! 😢 (Sobs. Dabs eye with handkerchief.) Really enjoyed this potted biography approach. Thanks so much for these. And look after your kidneys.

[@itskdog]

This series needs its lwn playlist. I went to check the playlists to make sure I hadnt mossed a Charles Yerkes episode, and foind there isnt yet one.

[@Charstring]

Maybe Mr. Hazzard should pop across the pond and visit Mr Yerkes' imposing mausoleum in the Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn? Yerkes' widow must have had an interesting life as well, a very rich woman after his death she married (and rapidly divorced) a younger man who it turned out was a pretty exuberant and rambunctious con-artist.

[@CuoreGR]

Very glad you did something with my (and probably countless other people's) suggestion to use Yerkes' picture when talking about shady characters in an ad :)

[@ktipuss]

1.55 The soil south of the Thames is looser alluvial soil rather than clay, which was not friendly to tube tunnel building for a long time; not impossible, but very expensive. Hence the predominance of trams in south London for so long.

[@beachman8106]

Another great video. You are the Readers Digest Condensed Book to my disorganised knowledge of railway history. 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️ from 🇦🇺

[@paultidd9332]

Surely this cannot be the end of the Yerkes series? And I hope you put it together as a playlist, it certainly is your PHD thesis and seemingly life’s work thus far, take Leave to Supplicate! I suppose the only hypothesis to consider would be what if there had been no Yerkes?

[@brettpalfrey4665]

Was C T Yerkes the next George Hudson, or was Hudson the original C T Yerkes? The Dark Side is full of twists and turns.. Out of the darkness comes a bright light....Who is the Dark Lord now? Nice one Jago....

[@herseem]

"You are the suspect loan to my suspiciously profitable company" : LMAO - best.... I don't know what to call those bits... ever.

[@PMA65537]

7:32 In 2006 TV series Hustle had a character called James Whittaker Wright III played by Richard Chamberlain.

[@ulicnik24]

I hope it's not end of the stories about Mr. Yerkes.

[@MiddayDolomite]

I really think Charles Yerkes deserves a major biographical film, just as Stephen Hawking and Alan Turing had. I could see someone like Henry Cavill in the titular role, what with the moustache and all.

[@pulaski1]

The timing of this video, and the second half of its title is intriguing (ETA, which now seems to have been deleted, but said something like "the end of the Titan"), given that the fate of the submersible vessel that was on its way to visit the Titanic on the sea bed, is currently (1pm BST, 21/6/2023) a hot news topic. The vessel is named "Titan", and all the indications are that Titan, and all on board, have come to an unfortunate end.

[@john1703]

Titans: the elder Greek Gods, led by Cronus, who ruled the Earth before being overthrown by the Olympian Gods, led by his son Zeus. Sounds familiar today.

[@gordonrichardson2972]

Yeah, I noticed that, and it's now changed.

[@theenigmaticst7572]

I'm getting Moist Von Lipwig vibes from Charles Tyson Yerkes - that said, you can't get far in Underground history without meeting him - I'm sure Mr Hazzard would agree with this, since he keeps running into him wherever he goes!!!

[@officialmcdeath]

Reconnoitering on Hampstead Heath eh? \m/

[@JoseMorales-lw5nt]

#JagoHazzard: Meanwhile, we New Yorkers have an early 20th Century anti-hero who forever altered traffic flow in our fair city, as well. You might have heard of him. A man from New Haven, Connecticut by the name of.... Robert Moses. Let's just say, what Yerkes was to urban mass transit, Moses was to the automobile industry. Safe to say, the obsession he had with cars was detrimental to our subway system. You might wanna look up THE POWER BROKER by Robert Caro. It's a must-read for transit enthusiasts like yourself. Cheerio!❤

[@esmeephillips5888]

Yerkes is an entertaining specimen of the Yankee promoter, but the guy who pops up at the end was the true father of London Transport: Albert Stanley, Lord Ashfield. He was a boy wonder who was running Detroit's streetcar system at 20. He brought London's tubes, trams and buses together, midwifed the conversion of a private enterprise into a public service and encouraged the modern and stylish design instincts of Pick and Holden. He saw the LPTB through World War Two and made it, together with the BBC, the most widely admired British institution created in the 20th century. Ashfield was the Reith of transport.

[@highpath4776]

I remember when we had an Empire. Its a Cineworld Now

[@robertward7449]

Brilliant video (as ever). Can't help liking Yerkes, even if he was a bit of a chancery.

[@BroonParker]

Lane?

[@neville132bbk]

@@BroonParker He was the Railway Man of Property.... qv "In Chancery" (1920).

[@bear6845]

Oh darling, we've all said things we dont mean afterwards on Hampstead Heath, in the heat of the moment.

[@vmv2000]

What a story! A real saga of tragedy, entrepreneurship, planning, greed and fury! 😂😮😊 Amazing research 💪

[@paveloleynikov4715]

This series demends its own playlist. Or conversion into hour long documentary

[@neville132bbk]

Shocked. Shocked, I tell you, that you could even Suggest that The Man of Property ( which I am currently reading,, ) was a con man. A man of vision not bound by .. normal business convention. He was/is not alone. Just loved the beautiful green majolica ware tiling along that connecting tunnel near the end of your Tribute. Such tiling is in abundance in the great entry hall of Dunedin Railway Station. LeviNZ gives an unambivalent uptick to this postCovid production. Yerkes is the majolica tiling to your Samian ware.

[@True_NOON]

I mean, before him there were 2 kings bitch fighting with worms wiglling between, yerkes made it into 1 company that had some organisation

[@robmortimer4150]

Loved this story

[@brick6347]

It's a good thing that this sort of skulduggery is frowned upon these days, and that investors are less gullible. Also I've got some NFTs to sell if anyone's interested, guaranteed profit.

[@TerraFirmaTyger]

King Jago 👑

[@bingbong7316]

He was a jolly good bad egg altogether.

[@rubysy2531]

They like using the same name for train stations, there was one on Birkenhead Woodside railway on the the Wirral. It got closed in 1967, there is a ferry called by it called Woodside ferry. It goes to Liverpool but at the moment it just pleasure cruise going up Mersey because there only Snowdrop boat in action. The Wirral is waiting new stock.

[@PaddyWV]

It's a grand story. Worthy of a TV serial maybe. I wonder who would play him.

[@jaakkomantyjarvi7515]

Charles Tyson Yerkes: Lovable Rogue or Magnificent Bastard?

[@MrPete1x]

Thanks again Jago

[@apolloc.vermouth5672]

Yerkes doesn't strike me as simply a power-hungry rotter - I mean he could have chosen a field far less technically demanding than underground rail if he just wanted easy money and fame.

[@highpath4776]

dont know, come 1899 was not most of the alternatives tied up ? (the main I think would be gramophone records and film industry where fortunes could be made, or lost)

[@andrewweitzman4006]

He basically said he knew two things: stock brocking and street railways. Stock picking was what got him into the mess that ended up with his embezzling city money and then a prison sentence. So he stuck with what was called "traction" in those days.

[@rogink]

Given how many investors lost their shirts, not just building the Underground, but railways during the Victorian era, it would be interesting to learn how many actually got their money back! 30 off years later and I think those who invested in the Channel tunnel are yet to see a dividend.

[@johnjephcote7636]

George Hudson Mk II.

[@robk7266]

A man from Chicago built the London Underground, and a man from London built the Chicago Elevated

[@amethyst7084]

Great informative video on Charles Tyson Yerkees, to follow on ftom the previous great informative video on Charles Tydon Yerkees. Thanks Jago 😊 Having started with the thought that most mainline termini missed Central London, I wonder if you'd consider doing a video about Thameslink. Given its ability to go through London linking the south coast to Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, unlike its rivals, I have to say that I can't remember much being said at the time about Thameslink being built, and the obvious advantage it would provide with people no longer having to get off the inter-city lines to get on the tube to continue their journey out of London. I'd say that at opening, Thameslink was the Crossrail of the 80s.

[@MrGreatplum]

So many powerful moustaches in this video!

[@NickyMitchell85]

……and you, Sir J. Hazzard, are my “suspect loan to my suspiciously 🤨 profitable KZbin channel”!!

[@PtolemyJones]

Curious, does it seem that Yerkes knew he was a crook, or did he think he was simply involved in business as usual?

[@andrewweitzman4006]

"Yes." Seriously, he operated in Gilded Age America and in his early career was tied in with the highly corrupt Republican political machine of Philadelphia. He was tutored by the most experienced crooks of the time: the politicos who ran the city and the state. Then he went to Chicago, a place wider open than a Macau hooker when the fleet is in. He was just more brazen than most.

[@ZGryphon]

Given the era in which he lived, the answer is probably "Yes."

[@PtolemyJones]

@@ZGryphon Your "clever" and pithy comment makes no sense, he can't think he is the villain, and the hero at the same time. Did he think he was doing more harm than good, or the other way around?

[@ZGryphon]

@@PtolemyJones That's not what you asked, though. You asked whether he knew he was a crook or thought he was involved in business as usual. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries (to an extent that would probably be startling even in today's cynical age), "business as usual" _was_ crooked and most of the men involved in it knew that, so a positive answer to both is perfectly reasonable. As to the way you just reframed that, I'm inclined to think the former in his American phase and the latter in London, but we can never know for sure what any long-dead historical figure was thinking, particularly if they didn't write it down.

[@PtolemyJones]

@@ZGryphon I am often curious about things we can never though, so I am used to it. That is what I meant with my original question however.

[@lfcloyal8284]

Remember you saying......not him again Jago😂

[@randomclass4653]

Yerkes looks like a literal disney villain