The Breakers

The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a National Historic Landmark, a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic District, and is owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport County.

The Breakers was built as the Newport summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy United States Vanderbilt family. It is built in a style often described as Goût Rothschild. Designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt and with interior decoration by Jules Allard and Sons and Ogden Codman, Jr., the 70-room mansion has approximately 65,000 sq ft (6,000 m2) of living space. The home was constructed between 1893 and 1895 at a cost of more than $12 million (approximately $335 million in today's dollars adjusted for inflation). The Ochre Point Avenue entrance is marked by sculpted iron gates and the 30-foot (9.1 m) high walkway gates are part of a 12-foot-high limestone and iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The 250 ft × 120 ft (76 m × 37 m) dimensions of the five-story mansion are aligned symmetrically around a central Great Hall.

Part of a 13-acre (53,000 m²) estate on the seagirt cliffs of Newport, it faces east overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.