Fort McHenry United States

Legendary

Visit the site of the battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become the US national anthem.

Photo by GuyDeckerStudio

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The flag that flew over Fort McHenry measured 30 feet by 42 feet. That's roughly the size of a small house, laid flat.

It had to be enormous. The soldiers wanted ships far out in the harbor to see it clearly, and one man watching from eight miles away saw it perfectly.

The fort is star-shaped and sits at the entrance to Baltimore Harbor in Maryland. Its job was simple: stop enemy ships from reaching the city.

That job became urgent during the War of 1812, a conflict between the United States and Britain. In August 1814, British troops marched into Washington, D.C. and burned the Capitol and the President's House.

Baltimore was next. If the British captured Fort McHenry, the city would fall too.

On September 13, 1814, British warships opened fire. The bombardment lasted about 25 hours, with thousands of shells, cannonballs, and rockets hurled at the fort.

The walls held. The fort had been built so solidly that the damage was surprisingly light.

Watching from a ship in the harbor was a 35-year-old lawyer named Francis Scott Key. He had sailed out to negotiate the release of an American prisoner and was stuck aboard until the fighting stopped.

Through the night he could only see flashes. At dawn on September 14, he saw the huge American flag still flying above the fort.

Key scribbled the beginning of a poem on the back of a letter. He finished it later that week and titled it "Defence of Fort M'Henry."

A Baltimore newspaper printed it on September 20. Someone paired the words with the tune of a popular song, and the piece was republished under a new name: "The Star-Spangled Banner."

It became the national anthem of the United States in 1931. The actual flag Key saw is now on display at the Smithsonian in Washington.

Walk the fort's star-shaped walls and stand where the cannons faced the harbor. Watch the daily flag change, when visitors are often invited to help hold the huge replica flag. Explore the barracks and powder magazine, restored to look as they did in 1814.