Fall River

City and port in southeastern Massachusetts, USA, on Mount Hope Bay; population (2000) 91,900. It stands at the mouth of the Taunton River, near the Little Fall River, which gave the city its name. It was founded in 1656 by settlers from the Plymouth Colony, and was incorporated in 1803, and became a city in 1854. Once the largest cotton cloth manufacturing centre in the world, the city now produces textiles and clothing, chemicals, electrical and computer products, rubber, and paper, and is still an active port.

Industry started in 1811 when Colonel John Durfree established the Globe Manufactory and the city became one of most important textile-mill centres in the USA, with more than one-sixth of the nation's spindles located here, and a population of mainly immigrant workers (almost one-fifth were French Canadians). It was badly damaged when 196 buildings were destroyed by fire in 1843.

In the 20th century, the cotton textile industry drifted away from New England to the southern states, leaving Fall River with a very high unemployment rate. The city was bankrupted in 1930. Many of the old mills have been turned into factory outlet shops and a major attraction is the Maritime Heritage Trail at Battleship Cove, which attracts about 200,000 visitors each year to see the Battleship Massachusetts and other naval vessels.

Lizzie Borden was acquitted here in 1893 of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe.