The Big Four were Leland Stanford (president of the Central Pacific), Collis P. Huntington (vice president), Mark Hopkins Jr. (treasurer) and Charles Crocker (construction supervisor). They funded the western half of the first transcontinental railroad, which was built through the Sierra Nevada in the 1860s.
They preferred to be known as The Associates. They profited from public land grants and bonds, and contemporary critics called them among the greatest swindlers in US history.