 USA
Maryland National Parks
National parks, monuments, natural reserves, historic sites of Maryland. Pages with photos are indicated with (pictures).
Antietam
Sharpsburg
Antietam (pictures)
Sharpsburg
Appalachian
Lake Superior
Assateague Island (pictures)
Berlin
Catoctin Mountain (pictures)
Thurmont
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (pictures)
Potomac River
Clara Barton (pictures)
Glen Echo
Fort McHenry and Historic Shrine
Baltimore
Fort Washington
Fort Washington
Glen Echo (pictures)
Glen Echo
Greenbelt
Greenbelt
Hampton (pictures)
Towson
Harmony Hall
Prince George's County
Monocacy
Frederick
Oxon Cove and Oxon Hill Farm
Oxon Hill
Piscataway
Fort Washington
Saugus Iron Works (pictures)
Saugus
Thomas Stone (pictures)
Port Tobacco
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Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine
Baltimore, MD
“O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,” a large red, white and blue banner? “Whose broad stripes and bright stars . . . were so gallantly streaming!” over the star-shaped Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore, September 13-14, 1814. The valiant defense of the fort by 1,000 dedicated Americans inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Regardless of the “rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air” the defenders of Fort McHenry stopped the British advance on Baltimore and helped to preserve the United States of America – “the land of the free and the home of the brave”.
Following the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812, the fort never again came under attack. However, it remained an active military post off and on for the next 100 years.
It became an area administered by the National Park Service in 1933, two years after Key's poem became this country's national anthem. Of all the areas in the National Park System, Fort McHenry is the only one designated a national monument and historic shrine.
Bird Watching, Interpretive Programs
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