Thread by @_HistoryNerd

In 1910, America’s banking system was collapsing.

Six men with 1/4 of the world’s wealth boarded a train in secret to a private island.

There, they created the blueprint for the Federal Reserve.

Here's the untold story of the most powerful institution in U.S. history 🧵

In the early 1900s, U.S. banking was chaotic.

Banks were small, unregulated, and prone to collapse.

The Panic of 1907 triggered mass bank runs.

The U.S. economy nearly imploded, and Congress was desperate for a fix.

Senator Nelson Aldrich, head of the National Monetary Commission, quietly invited 5 of the nation’s top financiers:

1. Paul Warburg – Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

2. Frank Vanderlip – National City Bank of New York (Citibank)

3. Henry P. Davison – J.P. Morgan & Co.

4. Charles Norton – First National Bank of New York

5. Benjamin Strong – Bankers Trust

Each represented a major banking empire.

They were told to meet at New Jersey’s Hoboken train station.

No last names. No public notices. No media leaks.

Officially, they were going on a duck-hunting trip.

Privately, they were about to redesign America’s financial system.

They boarded Aldrich’s private rail car, shades drawn, staff sworn to secrecy.

After 800 miles, they arrived at Jekyll Island, Georgia:

A private retreat owned by the ultra-exclusive Jekyll Island Club, whose members controlled an estimated 1/6th of the world’s wealth.

Over the next 9 days, they worked in total secrecy to draft a plan for a central banking system that would:

• Prevent bank runs
• Stabilize the currency
• Centralize U.S. monetary control

The public feared concentrated banking power, so secrecy was essential.

Warburg, a German-born banker, had studied Europe’s central banks.

He proposed a privately controlled system with regional “reserve” banks, all under a central board, a hybrid between public oversight and private ownership.

This draft became known as the Aldrich Plan.

Participants agreed to never reveal the meeting.

For decades, they denied it happened.

Vanderlip later admitted:

“If it were to be exposed publicly that we had come together… we knew that we simply wouldn’t have been able to carry it through.”

The Aldrich Plan initially failed in Congress due to suspicion of Wall Street’s influence.

But in 1913, a modified version of Federal Reserve Act was passed.

It created the Federal Reserve System:

12 regional banks Centralized monetary authority Power to issue U.S. currency

Today, the Federal Reserve controls:

• U.S. interest rates
• The money supply
• $30+ trillion in the economy

What began as a secret meeting in 1910 now shapes global finance.

The Fed was designed to prevent financial crises.

Since its creation, America has faced several crashes:

The Great Depression & The 2008 financial crash

It remains one of the most powerful and most controversial institutions in the world.

Read this if you're curious to know more...