[3] Biddeford is a principal population center of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan statistical area.

[4] In 1630, the Plymouth Company granted the land south of the River Swanckadocke to Dr. Vines and John Oldham.

Settlers withdrew to Winter Harbor for safety, and their homes and mills upriver at the falls were burned.

In 1693, a stone fort was built a short distance below the falls, but it was allegedly captured by Native Americans in 1703, when 11 colonists were killed and 24 taken captive to Canada.

The river divides into two falls that drop 40 feet (12 m), providing water power for mills.

At one time, the textile mills employed as many as 12,000 people, but as happened elsewhere, the industry entered a long period of decline.

[9] During World War II, the Biddeford Pool Military Reservation was established from 1942 to 1945, on what is now the Abenakee Golf Club.

The city proper has very diverse geography, from inland rolling hillside, to urban settlement, to coastal sprawl.

Timber Island, the most southerly point in the City of Biddeford, lies in Goosefare Bay at the mouth of the Little River, and is accessible at low tide from Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport.

The island and most of adjacent Timber Point became part of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in December 2011.

The city has almost 15 miles (24 km) of frontage along the Saco River, and an Atlantic coastline on which the seaside neighborhoods of Hills Beach, Biddeford Pool, Fortunes Rocks and Granite Point are located.

Biddeford is one of Maine's fastest-growing commercial centers, due to its close proximity to the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire and to northern Massachusetts.

The North Dam Mill is one example of this movement offering retail stores, art studios, cultural events, and upscale housing.

Biddeford is home to large institutions including MaineHealth Maine Medical Center Biddeford and the University of New England, a fast-growing school located along the coast which includes Maine's only medical school, the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.

[17] The newest addition is the Main Street Historic District, entered into the National Register on December 24, 2009.

Other downtown National Register properties include the Biddeford-Saco Mills Historic District, Biddeford City Hall, Dudley Block and the U.S. Post Office.

[19][20] Biddeford was the eastern terminus of the now-defunct New England Interstate Route 11, which ended in Manchester, Vermont.

Biddeford Municipal Airport is located two miles south of the central business district.

Local bus service in Biddeford is provided by Biddeford-Saco-Old Orchard Beach Transit, connecting the city to destinations in Saco and Portland.