The Breakers. Mrs. Astor's 400. Colonel Vanderbilt's America's Cup yachts racing across Narragansett Bay. This in Newport, once America's supreme summer retreat for the rich and elite during the 'Gilded Age.' Today, Newport is a bit more egalitarian, but sleek yachts with billowing sails still race around the bay, and the Italianite mansions build by Stanford White and Richard Morris Hunt continue to dominate the shoreline like graying grand dowagers.
