The river furnishes valuable waterpower, which is utilized by the city's manufactories (value of product in 1900, third in rank in the state, $8,103,484, of which only $3,693,792 was "factory" product; in 1905 the "factory" product was valued at $4,774,818), including cotton mills - in 1905 Danville ranked first among the cities of the state in the value of cotton goods produced - a number of tobacco factories, furniture and overall factories, and flour and knitting mills.