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1 FORT MCHENRY: STAR-SPANGLED GLORY

BOUNDARIES: Constellation Plaza, sea wall

DISTANCE: > 1 mile

DIFFICULTY: Easy

PARKING: In the lot at Constellation Plaza, in front of the visitor center

PUBLIC TRANSIT: MTA bus #1, Water Taxi #17

This is a short walk that’s long on history and rather unforgettable as a result. It was here that Francis Scott Key, one of Maryland’s most famous native sons, penned the poem that would become the American national anthem. Fearing a British attack after our Declaration of Independence, the citizens of Baltimore hastily constructed an earthen fort, Fort Whetstone, on the banks of the Patapsco River. The attack never materialized, but the spot continued to be recognized as particularly strategic. Construction on a more permanent fort with masonry walls began in 1798 and was completed in 1803. It was named after James McHenry, America’s second Secretary of War. It was in the War of 1812 that the fort shined brightest and gave Americans a rallying point that stirs emotions to this day. The feared British attack from decades earlier materialized on September 13–14, 1814. The British had already marched on Washington, burned the Capitol, and now set their sights on Baltimore, then America’s third-largest city and occupying a prime location. Key, on a British warship in the harbor to negotiate the release of Marylander Dr. William Beanes, listened to the bombardment through the night and was shocked and thrilled to see the American flag, that “star-spangled banner,” still waving come morning. One thousand brave Americans had repelled the attack, and the fledging nation was on its way to a future of unprecedented prosperity and might. Today Fort McHenry is the only attraction in the National Park System administered as both a Historic Shrine and a National Monument.

 Begin in the gleaming new $15 million visitor center, constructed in 2011, in time for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore. The original visitor center was built in 1964 and was designed to accommodate some 150,000 tourists. But the site eventually came to regularly attract upwards of 650,000 visitors per year. Now, with the wonderful new structure and the bicentennial of the battle approaching, the National Park Service expects that Fort McHenry could soon start seeing a million or more visitors a year.The new center is a beauty. A two-story LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building, it houses artifacts, a bronze statue of Francis Scott Key (conspicuously missing from the previous visitor center), and a wonderful film with an ending that could stir even the most hardened heart. The original manuscript of Key’s famous poem was on loan for the first few months after the visitor center’s grand opening, but to see it now, you’ll have to visit the Maryland Historical Society. That’s easy enough to do; just follow Walk 16: Mt. Vernon.

 When you’re through at the visitor center, walk onto the grounds. Follow the path from the back of the visitor center toward the V-shaped wedge sitting opposite the fort. This is the ravelin, designed to protect the fort’s entrance from direct attack.

 Opposite the ravelin in the arched entryway, you’ll notice underground rooms to either side of the entrance. These originally served as bombproofs but doubled as powder magazines during the Civil War.

 Just ahead are the parade grounds and flagpole. Flag-changing ceremonies take place each day at 9:30 a.m. and 4:20 p.m. Tradition holds that each new official American flag (to commemorate the inclusion into the Union of Alaska or Hawaii, for example) is flown first at Fort McHenry, before anywhere else in the country.The fort as you see it today doesn’t look exactly as it did when it was built more than 200 years ago. The years have seen many additions and improvements to suit evolving needs; indeed, the fort has served changing national interests from the start. After its prominent role in the War of 1812, Fort McHenry became home to training soldiers for the war with Mexico in 1846–1848. Fifteen years later, Confederate soldiers were housed at Fort McHenry during the Civil War; the numbers were usually in the lower hundreds but swelled to nearly 7,000 after the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1912, 100 years after its greatest glory, Fort McHenry closed as a military training center. The 141st Coastal Artillery Company had the distinction of being the last military unit garrisoned at the fort. But Fort McHenry saw renewed action as a military hospital for returning WWI soldiers, as U.S. Army Hospital No. 2, at the time the largest receiving hospital in the country, employing almost a thousand medical professionals. Fort McHenry saw a major restoration in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration. The restoration work that this New Deal program accomplished is what one sees at the fort today. The National Park Service took over operations of Fort McHenry in 1933. But even then, Fort McHenry’s service to America wasn’t complete. The U.S. Coast Guard used the fort for port security during WWII.

 Working your way from left to right from the flagpole, you will see five separate buildings. The first two buildings are soldiers’ barracks, housing the 60-man garrisons stationed there. Next up is the junior officers’ quarters. The building with the semicircular roof is the powder magazine. During the battle, a massive British bomb struck the magazine, but fortunately the bomb did not explode, which spared hundreds of lives. Last up is the commanding officer’s quarters, which was used by Major George Armistead, still a Baltimore legend. He’s buried in Old St. Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore. It was Armistead who ordered the installation at the fort of the massive American flag (42 by 30 feet; each stripe was 2 feet wide, and the stars measured 2 feet each from point to point). Today’s replica is just as large and carries the 15 stars and 15 stripes of the day, one for each state in the Union at the time. Look for Armistead’s bronze monument near the visitor center. Another Armistead monument stands atop Federal Hill (see Walk 3). Each building contains artifacts and historical notes.

 Continue on the trail outside of the fort toward the seawall. Once you reach the edge of the Patapsco River, you can go left if you wish to make a complete circuit and take the shortest route back to the visitor center. However, I’d recommend heading right, which will give you a longer walk and take you to the massive Orpheus statue.

 As you walk along the sea wall, take time to enjoy the view: the Patapsco spreading into the Chesapeake Bay; the Key Bridge off in the distance; the industry of south Baltimore. If it’s summer, the inevitable breeze coming off the water will offer instant refreshment. But beware: in winter, this breeze can bite.

 There will be no mistaking it when you reach the Orpheus monument; it’s enormous. Though Orpheus was the Greek god of music and poetry, this monument is actually to Francis Scott Key. You’ll notice depictions of Key around the base of the statue. It was on the occasion of the dedication of this monument in 1922 that Warren Harding became the first president to be broadcast on radio coast to coast.

BACK STORY

Despite its being the national anthem of the United States, the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner” are unknown to most Americans beyond the first verse. Here, then, is the poem as Key penned it:

O say can you see … by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep

Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,

’Tis the star-spangled banner—O long may it wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion

A home and a Country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!

Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n-rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto—“In God is our trust,”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

POINT OF INTEREST (START TO FINISH)

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine nps.gov/fomc, 2400 E. Fort Ave., 410-962-4290

ROUTE SUMMARY

1 Begin at the Fort McHenry Visitor Center.

2 Tour the fort and grounds.

3 Circle the sea wall.

Fort McHenry and massive American flag