Plan Your Visit

If possible, try to time your visit so that you can help raise or lower the flag that flies over Fort McHenry. Each day at 9:30 a.m. and 4:20 p.m., weather, permitting, a park ranger will give a short talk about the significance of Fort McHenry and the American flag. The ranger will then invite visitors to help raise or lower the flag. If you're lucky enough to be there on a day when the full-sized Star-Spangled Banner is flying, you'll definitely be needed.

It takes 60 people to catch the 30- by 42-foot flag. (This replica can only be flown when the wind speed is between five and 12 miles per hour because it is so large.)

Start your exploration of Fort McHenry at the Visitor Center. You'll need to buy a ticket – it's actually a sticker – to tour the fort. Your sticker allows you to visit Fort McHenry as many times as you like over a seven-day period. U.S. citizens and permanent residents age 62 and over should consider purchasing an Interagency Senior Pass for $10; the pass lasts a lifetime and allows you to bring three other adults with you, free of charge, provided you all arrive in the same vehicle. The pass is valid at National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Reclamation sites around the country.

At the Fort McHenry Visitor Center, you can view a short film about Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The Visitor Center is wheelchair accessible and the film is closed-captioned.

Be sure to sit in the front row if you want to be able to read the closed-captioning; the display is mounted below the movie screen.

After you watch the film, it's time to head up the pathway to the fort itself. The pathway slopes gently uphill, past a statue of Major George Armistead, commanding officer of Fort McHenry during the 1814 Battle of Baltimore. Once you are up at the fort itself, you'll have a nice view of the (industrial) Patapsco River and the city of Baltimore. The pathways are asphalt, but there are some areas where brick steps without railings lead down onto other levels of the fort.

Inside Fort McHenry's walls, the pathways are made of coarse gravel. You can visit the buildings that officers and soldiers lived in during the War of 1812. Taped narrations explain the displays. High points include the original crossbeams of the flagpole from which the Star-Spangled Banner, Armistead's specially-ordered American flag and Francis Scott Key's inspiration, flew on the morning after the Battle of Baltimore, the soldiers' barracks (the so-called bed looks remarkably uncomfortable) and the powder magazine, with its 10-foot thick walls. The cannons surrounding the fort date from the Civil War; some were brought to Fort McHenry from other sites.

Locals come to Fort McHenry not only to visit the fort but also to enjoy the grassy expanse that surrounds it. On pleasant days you'll see people flying kites, walking dogs and enjoying picnic lunches. Fort McHenry no longer defends Baltimore, but it still plays an important role.

You will find vending machines next to the restrooms at the far end of the parking lot, but no other food service. The Visitor Center has another set of restrooms and a tiny gift shop.

Contact information:

2400 East Fort Avenue

Baltimore, MD 21230-5393

(410) 962-4290

Park website