Fort Taylor had some rather innovative features for its time. Among them are the Desalination Plant, the tidal flush latrine system and cover face.

When Fort Taylor was constructed, provisions were made for 40 cistern water wells to be placed throughout the trapezoid-shaped foundation. One item that the Corps of Engineers did not calculate correctly was the wear and tear on the granite foundation by the constant wave action against it. As a result, the engineers discovered that the cistern wells had cracked due to the settling foundation and were taking on sea water. It was important to find another source for potable water. The U.S. Army purchased a desalination plant from England. The unit was sent by ship from England to New York City. From there it was brought to Fort Taylor and installed in Casemate #14 in 1862. It produced a daily water supply of 7,000 gallons. During excavations of that casemate in the late 1960s, the unit was found (photo on right), suffering from decay. A model of the unit is on display at Fort Taylor in the sally port.

Installation of the tidal flush latrine system was completed in late 1859. The concept of the system is that the tides will take care of flushing the waste out of the fort. Unfortunately, the system at Fort Taylor was found to be defective due to the Key West tidal flow. Despite the fact that Key West Harbor had four tidal changes daily, the tidal action occurred in inches as opposed to feet. There simply was not enough tidal action to properly flush the latrines. As a result, the latrine on the northwest side of the fort was inoperable. The lack of proper tidal flushing allowed waste to collect and caused the breeding of mosquitoes and outbreaks of Yellow Fever. The 1862 Yellow Fever outbreak was the worst to date: More than 300 soldiers contracted the disease. The death rate ran at 15 men a day. All told, 71 men died from that outbreak.

When the fort was originally constructed there were plans to build a cover face which would face the landward side of the fort. Those plans more or less took a back seat to the overall project until Capt. Brannan seized the fort in January 1861. There was a fear that Confederate sympathizers in Key West would organize and attempt to take the fort. Orders were issued to quickly construct a cover face and convert a portion of the causeway from the island to the fort into a drawbridge. The project was completed and 10 Columbiad cannon were mounted. The attack from Key West never happened. During the course of the war, the cover face was improved with the construction of warehouses and blacksmith shops. A narrow gauge rail system was built from the Martello Towers on the eastern side of the island to Fort Taylor. The rail ran across the main causeway. A 30-foot drawbridge was set up between the cover face and sally port. Much of the cover face was destroyed in a hurricane that struck Key West in 1867. It was never rebuilt and in 1875 another hurricane further damaged it. Today all that remains as evidence of the cover face is a concrete foundation that is barely visible above the dredge spoil that was placed on the property in 1968.