Fort McHenry
Situated on Locust Point overlooking Baltimore Harbor, Fort McHenry is a celebrated pentagonal star fort famous for its critical role in the War of 1812. On September 13–14, 1814, American defenders successfully withstood a twenty-four-hour naval bombardment by the British Royal Navy, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' Beyond its national symbolic importance, Fort McHenry possesses a shadowy history as a Civil War detention center and death row for Confederate prisoners and political detainees, as well as a massive World War I military hospital. Visitors, park rangers, and reenactors frequently report encountering ghost soldiers on the parapets, disembodied footsteps in the underground powder magazines, and phantom apparitions in period uniform.