Fort McHenry

For the history behind the American national anthem, which kicks off every baseball game, visit Fort McHenry. During the War of 1812, Americans fought off the British attempt to take the fort, which guards the entrance to Baltimore Harbor. Bombarded throughout the day and night of 14 September 1814, the fort held out and the British ships eventually withdrew. Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer who happened to be aboard one of the British ships to negotiate the release of a captured friend, was inspired by the sight of his country’s badly torn flag still flying at dawn on the 14th and wrote the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner". The expanded fort now on the site dates from the Civil War.