Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association 100 Light Street, 12th Floor Baltimore, MD 21202 (410) 659-7300 Population 736014 Time Zone Eastern Latitude/Longitude 39.29° /-76.61° Today's Forecast HIGH: 54 LOW: 42

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Attractions

Founded in 1729 as a customs house for the Virginia colony's tobacco farmers, Baltimore soon became one of the world's major seaports. When Britain sought to assert its position as ruler of the seas during the War of 1812, its failed effort to subdue Baltimore was memorialized by Francis Scott Key in "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Today you can see the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, site of this famous battle, and view Baltimore's scenic harbor from the very ramparts where Key once stood. You won't see bombs bursting in the air, but the city's waterfront attractions promise plenty of excitement.

Along the Inner Harbor, you'll find Harborplace & The Gallery with their shops, eateries, and market stalls. Nearby, take in the fine view of the city and Chesapeake Bay at the Top of the World, the 27th-floor observation level of the pentagonal World Trade Center. See the National Aquarium and its three buildings of live exhibits; the Maryland Science Center and Davis Planetarium; the Pier Six Concert Pavilion; the U.S.S. Constellation (a Civil War-era sailing ship); and more historic naval vessels at the Baltimore Maritime Museum. Cruises depart from docks near the Science Center for narrated harbor tours.

A few blocks east of the Inner Harbor, a visit to the Flag House & Star-Spangled Banner Museum will take you inside the home of Mary Pickersgill, the seamstress who made Fort McHenry's celebrated flag. Nearby, the Carroll Mansion and Shot Tower attest to the city's early industrial development.

Be sure to include the Mount Vernon neighborhood in your sightseeing tour. There you'll find the 1829 Washington Monument, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the museum of the Maryland Historical Society, the Walters Art Museum, and the Baltimore Basilica, the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States, built in 1806.

If that isn't enough, the city's museums also include the Babe Ruth Museum, the B & O Railroad Museum (paying tribute to America's first railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio), the American Visionary Art Museum on the south side of the harbor, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, and the Port Discovery Children's Museum.

Also see the Maryland Zoo in scenic Druid Hill Park, the Edgar Allan Poe Home and Grave, the Lexington Market (a 1782 indoor marketplace), and Pimlico Race Course, annual site of the Preakness.

The city's major sports teams play at sterling facilities: the Blast of the Indoor Soccer League at 1st Mariner Arena; baseball's Orioles at Camden Yard; the NFL Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.

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