1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rive-de-Gier

RIVE-DE-GIER, a town of east-central France, in the department of Loire, 14. m. E.N.E. of St Etienne, on the railway to Lyons. Pop. (1906) 15,338.

Situated on the Gier and the Canal de Givors, it is principally dependent on the coal industry, giving its name to a coal basin which is a continuation of that of St Etienne. It has glass works, the products of which are celebrated on account of the fmeness and purity of the sand found on the banks of the Rhone and the Saône. There are also iron and steel works where iron goods and ironmongery of all kinds are manufactured.

Rive-de-Gier is a place of some antiquity, as appears from remains of Gallo-Roman buildings, and mosaics and coins found at various times. In the time of Henry IV. the working of the mines had already given to the locality a measure of importance.