This west abutment is all that remains of the Miami Aqueduct of the Miami Erie Canal, which carried canal boats over the Great Miami River to the East side of the river and southward towards Dayton. The water crossing was a few 100 yards upstream of the town of Taylorsville, for which the nearby dam is named. This aqueduct was one of 19 along the 244 mile Miami Erie Canal connecting Cincinnati to Toledo. The canal (and this aqueduct) was used from 1845 until it met it's demise in the great flood of 1913.