October 16 in business history: a fake giant, a railroad built to be sold, and a bridge paid for twice

Three 16 Octobers, three things built by people whose plan was the sale: a stone giant, a railroad, and a bridge.

On 16 October 1869, two men were digging a well behind William Newell's barn in Cardiff, New York. 1 They lifted out a ten-foot stone man weighing just under 3,000 pounds. 1 It had been buried there since the previous November, and Newell knew it. 1

The figure was the work of his cousin George Hull, a New York tobacconist who wanted to prove how easily people could be fooled. 2 Hull quarried a block of gypsum near Fort Dodge, Iowa, and shipped it by rail to Chicago to be carved into a hairless giant. 2 The hoax cost him about $2,600. 1

Newell covered the figure with a tent and charged admission: 25 cents at first, 50 cents within two days, for a 15-minute viewing. 2 Hull was the one who turned it into capital. He sold his interest for $23,000 to a syndicate of five men led by David Hannum, who moved the giant to Syracuse. 12

P. T. Barnum offered $50,000 for it. When the syndicate refused, he had a copy modelled and exhibited it as the real one. 2 What ended the trade was a paleontologist. Yale's Othniel C. Marsh examined the figure, found fresh tool marks in soluble gypsum, and called it "a most decided humbug". 1 Hull confessed to the press on 10 December 1869. Hannum sued Barnum for calling his giant a fake, and on 2 February 1870 the court declared both giants fakes and dismissed the claim. 1

Decision mirror: JPMorgan Chase agreed to buy the student-aid startup Frank for $175 million in 2021, relying on its founder's claim of 4.25 million users. Frank had about 300,000. 3 Charlie Javice, the chief executive, received more than $21 million for her equity and was to be paid a further $20 million to stay. 3 In September 2025 she was sentenced to 85 months in prison and ordered to pay $287.5 million in restitution. 3

On 16 October 1882, the first trains ran over the whole Buffalo–Chicago main line of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad. 4 It was called the Nickel Plate because a Norwalk, Ohio, newspaper competing for the route had described the project as a "double track, nickel plated railroad". 5

The line was the idea of the Seney Syndicate, a group of bankers led by George I. Seney who already owned a 350-mile railroad in the same region. 4 Their new road ran parallel to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, William H. Vanderbilt's only through route between Buffalo and Chicago. 46 Vanderbilt offered to buy the project off Seney while it was still under construction. Then he threatened to starve it of traffic if it opened. 6

Early in 1881, Vanderbilt could have had the unfinished road for $1 million. 4 He passed, and spent the next year telling the trade that the new line was being built with substandard materials. 4

The line was finished in 1882, and Jay Gould began negotiating to buy it. 6 To keep it away from Gould, Vanderbilt bought it himself. On 25 October 1882, nine days after the first through trains, the syndicate sold for $7.2 million. 46 He then had to keep it alive. Running it into the ground would have handed it to a receiver. So the Nickel Plate ran just enough traffic to stay solvent while the Lake Shore took the volume. 4

Decision mirror: Amazon bought a competitor and then shut it. In November 2010 it agreed to acquire Quidsi, the parent of Diapers.com and Soap.com. 7 The price was about $500 million in cash plus roughly $45 million of assumed debt, after a price war in diapers. 78 In March 2017 Amazon announced it was closing Quidsi, saying it had been unable to make the unit profitable in seven years. 8 Quidsi's co-founder, Marc Lore, built Jet.com instead and sold it to Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016. 8

The Skye Bridge opened on 16 October 1995, replacing the ferry between Kyleakin and Kyle of Lochalsh. 9 Cars paid £4.70 one way that winter, rising to £5.70 in tourist season, on a crossing of about 500 metres. 9 The Forth Road Bridge, more than twice as long, charged 80p. 9

The bridge was Britain's first big Private Finance Initiative project. A consortium led by Bank of America, with the contractor Miller-Dywidag, funded the construction itself. 10 In return it was granted a licence to charge tolls, its whole return on the project. 1011 The partnership's first estimate was £15 million. The Scottish Office separately paid £15 million for the approach roads and the ferry's closure. 10

The islanders refused to pay. On the opening day, drivers queued at the booth and one after another declined. Later protests drove sheep across the bridge and paid tolls in pennies. 9 Over the decade, 130 people ended up with criminal convictions, and some went to prison for unpaid fines. 910

The Scottish Executive bought the concession back on 21 December 2004 for £27 million, and the last toll was paid as the announcement was made. 11 The executive said that without the buyout it would have had to provide a further £18 million in subsidy. Drivers would have paid £20 million more in tolls. 11 In the decade of tolls it had collected £33.3 million. 10

Decision mirror: Chicago ran the same trade on its parking meters. In December 2008 the city leased 36,000 meters to a Morgan Stanley-led consortium for 75 years for $1.15 billion. 12 The city's inspector general later concluded the deal was worth about twice what it raised. Rates in the busiest areas climbed from $3 an hour to $7. 12 By 2023 the owners had recovered the whole $1.15 billion plus $530 million, and the meters took in $160.9 million in 2024 alone. 12 When the mayor's office priced a buyback in January 2026, the figure was around $3 billion, and the city walked away. 12