Anchor Points
Anchor points illustrate the complete range of European industrial history.
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to the European Route of Industrial Heritage, the tourism information network of industrial heritage in Europe.
Currently we present more than 1,000 sites in 43 European countries. Among these sites there are 80 Anchor Points which build the virtual ERIH main route. On sixteen Regional Routes you can discover the industrial history of these landscapes in detail. All sites relate to thirteen European Theme Routes which show the diversity of European industrial history and their common roots.
In Ratingen, near Düsseldorf – the former Cromford Cotton Spinning Mill is now one of the sites of the Rhineland industrial Museum. At the end of the 18th century Johann Gottfried Brügelmann, an extremely rich merchant and textile magnate from Wuppertal decided to take a lesson from England (Cromford) – you can call this industrial espionage, if you like – and in 1784 he built what was most probably the first factory on the European mainland.
