33. Bill Gates’ Lake Washington Estate – $120 Million
You’ve seen Orsen Welle’s magnum opus/possibly greatest movie of all time, Citizen Kane, right? Right? Well, if not pretend you have—just use the word “Rosebud” a lot and folks will buy your bluff, at least for a while. Well, the eponymous hero Charles Foster Kane rises to unbelievable heights of wealth and power, and along the way, he also acquires an estate he names Xanadu. Kane, however, is a product of America’s Gilded Age, during which tycoons rolled hard and big money leads to the creation of big companies, big monopolies, and big, big buildings. Those days are past and we’re living in a very different America, and it’s hard to imagine who would have the financial clout to dominate an industry and . . .
. . . it’s Bill Gates. The founder of Microsoft is also the proud owner of a $120 million dollar plus estate located in Seattle on the shore of Lake Washington. Given the perhaps foreboding moniker of “Xanadu 2.0”–which perfectly combines both nerdiness and a complete lack of modesty—the $120 million-plus estate has something for everyone: a large library, multiple swimming pools one with an underwater sound system, and a private gym roughly 2,500 square feet in size. While this is impressive, nay, awe-inspiring, we do have one question: is there sledding? We feel like there should be sledding available, all things considered. Don’t get the reference? Go watch Citizen Kane already!