The factory is shown on this picture, it made sugar out of sugar beets, grown by farmers in the surrounding country. Other industries evolving were shipbuilding, iron casting, steel construction, beer brewery and fishing. This picture shows the growth of Gorinchem during and after the industrial revolution. Red is the old town, blue are the rivers, canal and moats. Light green is the area covered by De Vries Robb , orange are the housing quarters build for the labourers before the second world war, yellow build up housing till 1960, rose is build up till 1980 and purple is built up till now.
Dark green is the industrial and commerce area covered up till now.
After a period of economic recession, De Vries Robb after becoming part of several other companies went bankrupt in 1976. This was a shock for the workers, who took great pride in the many unique big steel construction projects in the Netherlands and abroad accomplished by De Vries Robb . It was also a shock to Gorinchem, now so many of its inhabitants lost their job, it would take more than 10 years, before the unemployment rate went back to normal. This is today's shape of the old town part of Gorinchem, as you can see on the left side, the channel has chopped off a piece of the town walls, but most of the town walls from 1600 are in more or less original shape. This ends this history page.