The kids may have learned the "Star-Spangled Banner" in school, but do they really know what those words they've memorized are all about? Maybe not—but after a trip to Baltimore, the national anthem will be charged with new meaning. True, most of today Baltimore's Inner Harbor—still a working deep-water port—has been slickly transformed, with the touristy Harborplace shopping mall, the National Aquarium, a lineup of restored vintage ships, and a host of other venues (a Hard Rock Cafe, an ESPN Zone, you know the drill). But gaze out across the water to the south and you'll get the same vista Francis Scott Key saw one heroic morning in 1812: a star-shaped fort on a hilly point overlooking Chesapeake Bay, still flying the American flag proudly over its ramparts.

The immense flag that flies over Fort McHenry today is not the one Key saw (the ragged original is now in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.). The original, however, was equally huge—30 feet high by 42 feet long—specially ordered by the fort's commander, Major George Armistead, soon after the U.S. declared war on England in 1812. Knowing that the British navy was bound to attack this prime harbor and ship-building center, he wanted a flag big enough that the British couldn't miss it. On September 13, the expected attack came, but after a night of fierce bombardment (as in "the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air"), that gigantic flag signaled that the scrappy Americans had held the fort.

A water taxi from the Inner Harbor Ed Kane's Water Taxi;& ☎ 800/658-8947 or 410/563-3901; only is the best way to approach Fort McHenry. Note how the fort's pentagonal shape—a popular design of that era—is echoed in the earthen banks surrounding the walls, those famous "ramparts" that the flag flew over. The green slopes around the fort, with their splendid water views, are popular picnic spots for Baltimoreans, but keep climbing uphill to enter the red-brick fort itself. The restored two-level barracks tucked inside the walls have been set up to re-create the enlisted men's cramped quarters, the slightly more comfortable junior officers' digs, and the commanding officer's apartment. Uniforms and weapons are displayed, and you can check out the powder magazine where ammunition was kept. Summer weekends are a great time to come, when costumed re-enactors do living history presentations, and the volunteer Fort McHenry Guard fires off muskets and cannons (always a hit with my sons).

Afterward the kids may want to visit those historic ships, though they date back to more recent eras. (Our favorite was the Civil-War-era USS Constellation, a triple-masted sloop-of-war.) Top your visit off with a Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yard—Orioles fans always sing the National Anthem with extra gusto, and now you'll know why.

Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.