Fall River, Massachusetts | ||
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City | ||
Downtown Fall River in 2007
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Nickname(s): "The Scholarship City," "The River", "Spindle City", "Where the River Falls" | ||
Motto: "We'll Try" | ||
Location in Bristol County in Massachusetts |
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Location in the United States | ||
Coordinates: 41°42′05″N 71°09′20″W / 41.70139°N 71.15556°WCoordinates: 41°42′05″N 71°09′20″W / 41.70139°N 71.15556°W | ||
Country | United States | |
State | Massachusetts | |
County | Bristol | |
Settled | 1670 | |
Incorporated | 1803 | |
Government | ||
• Type | Mayor-council | |
• Mayor | Jasiel F. Correia II | |
• City Council | Shawn E. Cadime President Linda M. Pereira Vice President Richard Cabeceiras Joseph D. Camara Steven A. Camara Pam Laliberte-Lebeau Stephen R. Long Raymond A. Mitchell Cliff Ponte |
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Area | ||
• Total | 40.2 sq mi (104.2 km2) | |
• Land | 33.1 sq mi (85.8 km2) | |
• Water | 7.1 sq mi (18.4 km2) | |
Elevation | 121 ft (37 m) | |
Population (2010) | ||
• Total | 88,857 | |
• Density | 2,682/sq mi (1,035.6/km2) | |
Time zone | Eastern (UTC-5) | |
• Summer (DST) | Eastern (UTC-4) | |
ZIP code | 02720-02724 | |
Area code(s) | 508 / 774 | |
FIPS code | 25-23000 | |
GNIS feature ID | 0612595 | |
Website | www |
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Fall River's population was 88,857 at the 2010 census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state.
Located along the eastern shore of Mount Hope Bay at the mouth of the Taunton River, the city became famous during the 19th century as the leading textile manufacturing center in the United States. While the textile industry has long since moved on, its impact on the city's culture and landscape remains to this day. Fall River's official motto is "We'll Try," dating back to the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1843. It is also nicknamed "the Scholarship City" because Dr. Irving Fradkin founded Dollars for Scholars here in 1958.
Fall River is known for the Lizzie Borden case, Portuguese culture, its numerous 19th-century textile mills and Battleship Cove, the world's largest collection of World War II naval vessels and the home of the USS Massachusetts (BB-59). Fall River is also the only city in the United States to have its city hall located over an interstate highway.
At the time of the establishment of the Plymouth Colony in 1620, the area that would one day become Troy City was inhabited by the Pokanoket Wampanoag tribe, headquartered at Mount Hope in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island. The "falling" river that the name Fall River refers to is the Quequechan River (pronounced "quick-a-shan" by locals) which flows through the city, dropping steeply into the bay. Quequechan is a Wampanoag word believed to mean "Falling River" or "Leaping/Falling Waters." During the 1960s, Interstate 195 was constructed through the city along the length of the Quequechan River. The portion west of Plymouth Avenue was routed underground through a series of box culverts, while much of the eastern section "mill pond" was filled in for the highway embankment.