Patterson ceremonially opened the viaduct on December 4, 1829, a year and a half after construction began on the line, the first in America.

[3] In 1830, the viaduct was part of the route used by the B&O's first horse-drawn carriage train to Ellicott's Mills inaugurating railway traffic.

[4] The viaduct was almost totally destroyed in 1868 by a massive flood that devastated and wiped out numerous stone mills and industrial structures along the river.

In 1903, the Bollman truss was supplanted when the track was moved to a new bridge and alignment about 400 ft (120 m) upstream with the opening of the Ilchester Tunnel.

In 2006, a cable-stayed footbridge carrying the Grist Mill Trail, with a design that echoes the historic architecture and engineering of a Bollman Bridge, was added atop the abutments.