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
2 GWYNNS FALLS TRAIL II: WESTPORT WATERFRONT
BOUNDARIES: Wenburn St./Kloman St., Gwynns Falls Trail, Potee St./Cherry Hill Park
DISTANCE: 1.8 miles one way
DIFFICULTY: Easy to moderate
PARKING: Harbor Hospital (see below), Wenburn St.
PUBLIC TRANSIT: Westport Light Rail, Cherry Hill Light Rail, and MTA buses #27 and #29 run east–west along Waterview Ave. MTA buses #27 and #64 run north–south on S. Hanover St.
Westport and neighboring Cherry Hill often stick in the minds of many Baltimoreans as marginal neighborhoods, teetering on an abyss. Indeed, a stroll through the residential sections of these neighborhoods reveals a lot of abandoned houses. However, a $1.5-billion development package is in the works for waterfront Westport that promises to change the very face of this area in a major way. The aim is to capitalize on Westport’s location next to I-95 (easy access to D.C. and Maryland’s central corridor) and its proximity to downtown. If the plans are realized, Westport could soon be the sort of place that every Baltimorean knows in a way very different from now. We can hope that all the coming change and prosperity will spill over into Cherry Hill as well. This walk begins at the site of the coming caravanserai and traverses the Gwynns Falls Trail along the Patapsco River, taking in the views and the attributes that make the area so ripe for revitalization.
Note: For a thorough description/explanation of the Gwynns Falls Trail, see Walk 15: Gwynns Falls Trail: From Leon Day to Mount Clare.
Begin at the Westport Light