Dayton is situated at the fork of the Great Miami River. The river curves through the city from the northeast, uniting with the Stillwater River half a mile above Main Street Bridge. Mad River from the east and Wolf Creek from the west join the others four blocks from there. Dayton has 28 bridges crossing these rivers.

The first flood, in 1805, started a progression of higher levees. In 1913, the most disastrous flood took 361 lives and property worth $100 million and inspired a flood-control plan effective to date.

Here, between 1870 and 1910, James Ritty invented a "mechanical money drawer" (which only amused people at first); John Patterson, promoting this cash register, opened the first daylight factory with 80 percent glass walls; Barney Oldfield, in his "Old 999" pioneer racing car, won a local exhibition match; the Wright brothers experimented with kites and gliders, built a wind tunnel, and developed the aileron; and Charles Kettering sold a big order of automobile self-starters to the Cadillac Motor Company. During and after World War I, the city added Frigidaire and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to its economic base. Today, Dayton is a well-planned, well-run industrial city with a council-manager form of government.