History & Background on Baltimore

Twenty-five years ago, the dilapidated warehouses and gritty docks of Baltimore's harbor weren't exactly a popular tourist destination. After decades of suburban flight and a slumping economy, the industrial port city did not lure many travelers off highway I-95. But these days millions of visitors head to the city's Inner Harbor, and Baltimore's urban renewal success story is the envy of cities across the country.

"Charm City" earns its nickname from renowned museums, performing arts, restaurants and historical sites. Almost a million Baltimoreans make their homes in the nation's 13th-largest city. While not every city neighborhood has shared equally in the city's revitalization, Baltimore is truly a city of many charms.

Named for Maryland's founding father, the First Lord Baltimore, the city owes its existence to the natural, deep-water harbor formed where the Patapsco River empties into the mammoth Chesapeake Bay. From its 1729 founding to the present, Baltimore has been a vital shipbuilding center and one of the nation's largest commercial ports. In the early 1800s, speedy topsail schooners known as Baltimore Clippers made "privateering" a local specialty. After torching the Nation's Capitol during the War of 1812, the British Navy set sail to wreak revenge on Baltimore's "nest of pirates." Francis Scott Key immortalized the heroics of city defenders when he penned his eyewitness account of the British bombardment of Baltimore's still-standing Fort McHenry. Over a hundred years after it was set to the tune of an old English drinking song, Key's "Star Spangled Banner" became our national anthem. The handwritten manuscript is on display in the Maryland Historical Society-not far from Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, birthplace of the flag that inspired his verses.

The original U.S.S. Constellation, the most famous Baltimore-built ship, saw action in the War of 1812. Its replacement, built in 1854, now sits in permanent berth in Baltimore's harbor. The cobblestone streets and historic row houses of Fells Point preserve the flavor of the seafaring neighborhood by day, and offer some of the city's most lively clubs come nightfall.

Just a short taxi ride-water taxi, that is-from Fells Point, Baltimore's Inner Harbor serves as the city's centerpiece. Touring ships offer seaside views of the city from the decks of a replica clipper, restored skipjack, modern cruise ship and other vessels. More than 250 eateries and shops fill the two glass-enclosed pavilions of Harborplace. Between the pavilions, an open-air amphitheater offers free entertainment throughout the summer. At either end of the Inner Harbor district, the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center offer exciting high-tech exhibits that combine education with entertainment. Seven levels of exhibits-including a 335,000-gallon coral reef and a rooftop rainforest-have earned the aquarium the distinction of being the state's most popular attraction. Only blocks away from the aquarium, fans flock to Camden Yards for Orioles baseball and Ravens football.

For a bird's eye view of the city, head just east of Harborplace to Baltimore's World Trade Center, which claims bragging rights as the world's tallest pentagonal building. The 27th-floor "Top of the World" observation deck offers the best view of the city's skyline -- including the 357-foot Bromo Seltzer Tower, a local landmark completed in 1911 and designed after a Renaissance tower in Florence. Today, the company name remains on the clock face, but a giant, revolving bottle of antacid was removed from the tower in 1936. Visitors enjoy another panoramic view of the city from the heights of Federal Hill, the historic neighborhood where Baltimoreans of yore celebrated with gusto the ratification of the Constitution. Even better is the view from atop the 298-step, spiral staircase of the stately Washington Monument, begun in 1815 in the historic Mt. Vernon neighborhood.

Famous Baltimoreans memorialized at sites across the city include slugger Babe Ruth, essayist H.L. Menken, horror-meister Edgar Allen Poe, jazz composer Eubie Blake and painter Rembrandt Peale. Baltimore's world-renowned institutions include the Johns Hopkins University, Walters Gallery, Baltimore Museum of Art, Peabody Conservatory of Music, and Enoch Pratt Free Library. - Jody Lannen Brady 

For more information, please visit: http://www.baltimore.org/ and http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/

Baltimore Attractions Guide