Fall River is known for the Lizzie Borden case, the Fall River cult murders, Portuguese culture, its numerous 19th-century textile mills and Battleship Cove, home of the world's largest collection of World War II naval vessels (including the battleship USS Massachusetts).

Fall River is a safe community to live in! Fall River's overall crime rate is 15.2% lower than national average, with 1,989 crimes annually per 100,000 people. The property crime rate is 43.1% lower than the national average, while the violent crime rate is 125% higher.

In 1856, the town of Tiverton voted to split off its industrial northern section as Fall River, Rhode Island. In 1861, after decades of dispute, the United States Supreme Court moved the boundary to what is now State Avenue, thereby creating a City of Fall River entirely within Massachusetts.