The city is home to some of the earliestNational Register Historic Districts in the nation, includingFell's Point,Federal Hill, andMount Vernon. Baltimore has more public statues and monuments per capita than any other city in the U.S.[22] Nearly one third of the buildings (over 65,000) are designated as historic in theNational Register, more than any other U.S. city.[23][24] Baltimore has 66 National Register Historic Districts and 33 local historic districts.[23]
The Baltimore area was inhabited byNative Americans since at least the10th millennium BC, whenPaleo-Indians first settled in the region.[29] One Paleo-Indian site and severalArchaic period andWoodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from theLate Woodland period.[29] In December 2021, several Woodland period Native American artifacts were found inHerring Run Park in northeast Baltimore, dating 5,000 to 9,000 years ago. The finding followed a period of dormancy in Baltimore City archaeological findings which had persisted since the 1980s.[30] During the Late Woodland period, thearchaeological culture known as the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore south to theRappahannock River in present-dayVirginia.[31]
In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was sparsely populated, if at all, by Native Americans. The Baltimore County area northward was used as hunting grounds by theSusquehannock living in the lowerSusquehanna River valley. ThisIroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact withPowhatan in thePotomac region" and south into Virginia.[32]Pressured by the Susquehannock, thePiscataway tribe, anAlgonquian-speaking people, stayed well south of the Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of thePotomac River in what are nowCharles and southernPrince George's counties in the coastal areas south of theFall Line.[33][34][35]
European colonization of Maryland began in earnest with the arrival of the merchant shipThe Ark carrying 140 colonists at St. Clement's Island in thePotomac River on March 25, 1634.[36] Europeans then began to settle the area further north, in what is nowBaltimore County.[37] Since Maryland was a colony, Baltimore's streets were named to show loyalty to the mother country, e.g. King, Queen, King George and Caroline streets.[38] The originalcounty seat, known today as Old Baltimore, was located onBush River within the present-dayAberdeen Proving Ground.[39][40][41] The colonists engaged in sporadic warfare with the Susquehannock, whose numbers dwindled primarily from new infectious diseases, such assmallpox, endemic among the Europeans.[37] In 1661 David Jones claimed the area known today asJonestown on the east bank of theJones Falls stream.[42]
The colonialGeneral Assembly of Maryland created thePort of Baltimore at old Whetstone Point, nowLocust Point, in 1706 for thetobacco trade. The Town of Baltimore, on the west side of the Jones Falls, was founded on August 8, 1729, when the Governor of Maryland signed an act allowing "the building of a Town on the North side of the Patapsco River". Surveyors began laying out the town on January 12, 1730. By 1752 the town had just 27 homes, including a church and two taverns.[38] Jonestown and Fells Point had been settled to the east. The three settlements, covering 60 acres (24 ha), became a commercial hub, and in 1768 were designated as the county seat.[43]
Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco forsugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean. The profit from sugar encouraged the cultivation of cane in the Caribbean and the importation of food by planters there.[47] Since Baltimore was the county seat, a courthouse was built in 1768 to serve both the city and county. Its square was a center of community meetings and discussions.
Baltimore established itspublic market system in 1763.[48]Lexington Market, founded in 1782, is one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the United States today.[49] Lexington Market was also a center of slave trading. Enslaved Black people were sold at numerous sites through the downtown area, with sales advertised inThe Baltimore Sun.[50] Both tobacco and sugar cane were labor-intensive crops.
In 1774, Baltimore established the first post office system in what became the United States,[51] and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation, Baltimore Water Company, 1792.[52][53]
The city remained a part of surroundingBaltimore County and continued to serve as its county seat from 1768 to 1851, after which it became anindependent city.[58]
TheBritish bombardment of Baltimore in 1814 inspired the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", and the construction of theBattle Monument, which became the city's official emblem. A distinctive local culture started to take shape, and a unique skyline peppered with churches and monuments developed. Baltimore acquired its moniker "The Monumental City" after an 1827 visit to Baltimore by PresidentJohn Quincy Adams. At an evening function, Adams gave the following toast: "Baltimore: the Monumental City—May the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant."[59][60]
Baltimore pioneered the use ofgas lighting in 1816, and its population grew rapidly in the following decades, with concomitant development of culture and infrastructure. The construction of the federally fundedNational Road, which later became part ofU.S. Route 40, and the privateBaltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.) made Baltimore a major shipping andmanufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in theMidwest. By 1820 its population had reached 60,000, and its economy had shifted from its base in tobacco plantations tosawmilling,shipbuilding, andtextile production. These industries benefited from war but successfully shifted intoinfrastructure development during peacetime.[61]
Maryland, aslave state with limited popular support forsecession, especially in the three counties of Southern Maryland, remained part of theUnion during theAmerican Civil War, following the 55–12 vote by the Maryland General Assembly against secession. Later, the Union's strategic occupation of the city in 1861 ensured Maryland would not further consider secession.[64][65] The Union's capital of Washington, D.C. was well-situated to impede Baltimore and Maryland's communication or commerce with theConfederacy. Baltimore experienced some of the first casualties of Civil War on April 19, 1861, whenUnion Army soldiers en route fromPresident Street Station toCamden Yards clashed with a secessionist mob in thePratt Street riot.
TheGreat Baltimore Fire in 1904 photographed fromPratt andGay streets in Baltimore; the fire destroyed over 1,500 Baltimore buildings in 30 hours.
On February 7, 1904, theGreat Baltimore Fire destroyed over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours, leaving more than 70 blocks of the downtown area burned to the ground. Damages were estimated at $150 million in 1904 dollars.[69] As the city rebuilt during the next two years, lessons learned from the fire led to improvements in firefighting equipment standards.[70]
Baltimore lawyer Milton Dashiell advocated for an ordinance to bar African-Americans from moving into theEutaw Place neighborhood in northwest Baltimore. He proposed to recognize majority white residential blocks and majority black residential blocks and to prevent people from moving into housing on such blocks where they would be a minority. The Baltimore Council passed the ordinance, and it became law on December 20, 1910, with DemocraticMayor J. Barry Mahool's signature.[71] The Baltimore segregation ordinance was the first of its kind in the United States. Many other southern cities followed with their own segregation ordinances, though the US Supreme Court ruled against them inBuchanan v. Warley (1917).[72]
The city grew in area by annexing new suburbs from the surrounding counties through 1918, when the city acquired portions of Baltimore County andAnne Arundel County.[73] A state constitutional amendment, approved in 1948, required a special vote of the citizens in any proposed annexation area, effectively preventing any future expansion of the city's boundaries.[74]Streetcars enabled the development of distant neighborhoods areas such asEdmonson Village whose residents could easily commute to work downtown.[75]
Driven by migration from thedeep South and bywhite suburbanization, the relative size of the city'sblack population grew from 23.8% in 1950 to 46.4% in 1970.[76] Encouraged by real estateblockbusting techniques, recently settled white areas rapidly became all-black neighborhoods, in a rapid process which was nearly total by 1970.[77]
By the beginning of the 1970s, Baltimore's downtown area, known as the Inner Harbor, had been neglected and was occupied by a collection of abandoned warehouses. The nickname "Charm City" came from a 1975 meeting of advertisers seeking to improve the city's reputation.[80][81] Efforts to redevelop the area started with the construction of theMaryland Science Center, which opened in 1976, theBaltimore World Trade Center (1977), and theBaltimore Convention Center (1979).Harborplace, an urban retail and restaurant complex, opened on the waterfront in 1980, followed by theNational Aquarium, Maryland's largest tourist destination, and theBaltimore Museum of Industry in 1981.
Baltimore has had ahigh homicide rate for several decades, peaking in 1993, and again in 2015.[86][87] These deaths have taken an especially severe toll within the black community.[88] Following thedeath of Freddie Gray in April 2015, the city experiencedmajor protests and international media attention, as well as a clash between local youth and police that resulted in astate of emergency declaration and a curfew.[89]
In September 2016, the Baltimore City Council approved a $660 million bond deal for the $5.5 billionPort Covington redevelopment project championed byUnder Armour founderKevin Plank and his real estate company Sagamore Development. Port Covington surpassed the Harbor Point development as the largesttax-increment financing deal in Baltimore's history and among the largest urban redevelopment projects in the country.[93] The waterfront development that includes the new headquarters for Under Armour, as well as shops, housing, offices, and manufacturing spaces is projected to create 26,500 permanent jobs with a $4.3 billion annual economic impact.[94]Goldman Sachs invested $233 million into the redevelopment project.[95]
In the early hours of March 26, 2024, the city's 1.6-mile-long (2.6 km)Francis Scott Key Bridge, which constituted a southeast portion of theBaltimore Beltway, was struck by a container ship andcompletely collapsed. A major rescue operation was launched with US authorities attempting to rescue people in the water.[96]Eight construction workers, who were working on the bridge at the time, fell into thePatapsco River.[97] Two people were rescued from the water,[98] and the bodies of the remaining six were all found by May 7.[99]Replacement of the bridge was estimated in May 2024 at a cost approaching $2 billion for a fall 2028 completion.[100]
Baltimore is in north-central Maryland on thePatapsco River, close to where it empties into theChesapeake Bay. Baltimore is located on thefall line between thePiedmont Plateau and theAtlantic coastal plain, which divides Baltimore into "lower city" and "upper city". Baltimore's elevation ranges from sea level at the harbor to 480 feet (150 m) in the northwest corner nearPimlico.[6]
In the 2010 census, Baltimore has a total area of 92.1 square miles (239 km2), of which 80.9 sq mi (210 km2) is land and 11.1 sq mi (29 km2) is water.[101] The total area is 12.1 percent water.
Baltimore is rich in architecturally significant buildings in a variety of styles. TheBaltimore Basilica (1806–1821) is a neoclassical design by Benjamin Latrobe, and one of the oldestCatholic cathedrals in the United States. In 1813, Robert Cary Long Sr. built forRembrandt Peale the first substantial structure in the United States designed expressly as a museum. Restored, it is now the Municipal Museum of Baltimore, or popularly thePeale Museum.
TheMcKim Free School was founded and endowed by John McKim. The building was erected by his sonIsaac in 1822 after a design by William Howard and William Small. It reflects the popular interest inGreece when the nation was securing its independence and a scholarly interest in recently published drawings of Athenian antiquities.
ThePhoenix Shot Tower (1828), at 234.25 feet (71.40 m) tall, was the tallest building in the United States until the time of the Civil War, and is one of few remaining structures of its kind.[102] It was constructed without the use of exterior scaffolding. The Sun Iron Building, designed by R.C. Hatfield in 1851, was the city's first iron-front building and was a model for a whole generation of downtown buildings.Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1870 in memory of financierGeorge Brown, hasstained glass windows byLouis Comfort Tiffany and has been called "one of the most significant buildings in this city, a treasure of art and architecture" byBaltimore magazine.[103][104]
I.M. Pei'sWorld Trade Center (1977) is the tallest equilateral pentagonal building in the world at 405 feet (123 m) tall.[105]
TheHarbor East area has seen the addition of two new towers which have completed construction: a 24-floor tower that is the new world headquarters ofLegg Mason, and a 21-floorFour Seasons Hotel complex.
The streets of Baltimore are organized in a grid and spoke pattern, lined with tens of thousands ofrowhouses. The mix of materials on the face of these rowhouses also give Baltimore its distinct look. The rowhouses are a mix of brick andformstone facings, the latter a technology patented in 1937 by Albert Knight.John Waters characterized formstone as "the polyester of brick" in a 30-minute documentary film,Little Castles: A Formstone Phenomenon.[106] InThe Baltimore Rowhouse, Mary Ellen Hayward andCharles Belfoure considered the rowhouse as the architectural form defining Baltimore as "perhaps no other American city".[107] In the mid-1790s, developers began building entire neighborhoods of the British-style rowhouses, which became the dominant house type of the city early in the 19th century.[108]
Oriole Park at Camden Yards is aMajor League Baseball park, which opened in 1992 and was built as aretro style baseball park. Along with the National Aquarium, Camden Yards have helped revive the Inner Harbor area from what once was an exclusivelyindustrial district full of dilapidated warehouses into a bustling commercial district full of bars, restaurants, and retail establishments.
After an international competition, theUniversity of Baltimore School of Law awarded theGerman firmBehnisch Architekten 1st prize for its design, which was selected for the school's new home. After the building's opening in 2013, the design won additional honors including an ENR National "Best of the Best" Award.[109]
Baltimore's newly rehabilitatedEveryman Theatre was honored by theBaltimore Heritage at the 2013 Preservation Awards Celebration in 2013.Everyman Theatre will receive an Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Award as part of Baltimore Heritage's 2013 historic preservation awards ceremony. Baltimore Heritage is Baltimore's nonprofit historic and architectural preservation organization, which works to preserve and promote Baltimore's historic buildings and neighborhoods.[110]
South Baltimore, a mixed industrial and residential area, consists of the "Old South Baltimore" peninsula below the Inner Harbor and east of the oldB&O Railroad's Camden line tracks andRussell Street downtown. It is a culturally, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse waterfront area with neighborhoods such asLocust Point and Riverside around a large park of the same name.[127] Just south of the Inner Harbor, the historicFederal Hill neighborhood, is home to many working professionals, pubs and restaurants. At the end of the peninsula is historicFort McHenry, a National Park since the end of World War I, when the old U.S. Army Hospital surrounding the 1798 star-shaped battlements was torn down.[128]
It became the largest neighborhood for the city's Black community and its cultural, political, and economic center.[137]Coppin State University,Mondawmin Mall, andEdmondson Village are located in this district. The area's crime problems have provided subject material for television series, such asThe Wire.[139]
Baltimore has ahumid subtropical climate in theKöppen climate classification (Cfa) oroceanic climate in theTrewartha climate classification (Doak), with hot summers, cool winters, and a summer peak to annual precipitation.[140][141] Baltimore is part of USDA planthardiness zones 7b and 8a.[142] Summers are normally warm, with occasional late day thunderstorms. July, the warmest month, has a mean temperature of 80.3 °F (26.8 °C). Winters range from chilly to mild but vary, with sporadic snowfall: January has a daily average of 35.8 °F (2.1 °C),[143] though temperatures reach 50 °F (10 °C) quite often, and can occasionally drop below 20 °F (−7 °C) when Arctic air masses affect the area.[143] According toVox, winters are warming faster than summers.[141]
Spring and autumn are mild, with spring being the wettest season in terms of the number of precipitation days. Summers are hot and humid with a daily average in July of 80.7 °F (27.1 °C).[143] The combination of heat and humidity leads to occasional thunderstorms. A southeasterly bay breeze off the Chesapeake often occurs on summer afternoons when hot air rises over inland areas. Prevailing winds from the southwest interacting with this breeze as well as the city proper's UHI can seriously exacerbate air quality.[144][145] In late summer and early autumn the track of hurricanes or their remnants may cause flooding in downtown Baltimore, despite the city being far removed from the typical coastalstorm surge areas.[146]
The average seasonal snowfall is 19 inches (48 cm).[147] It varies greatly by year, with some seasons seeing only trace accumulations of snow, while others see several majorNor'easters.[c] Owing to lessenedurban heat island (UHI) as compared to thecity proper and distance from the moderating Chesapeake Bay, the outlying and inland parts of the Baltimore metro area are usually cooler, especially at night, than the city proper and the coastal towns. Thus, in the northern and western suburbs, winter snowfall is more significant, and some areas average more than 30 in (76 cm) of snow per winter.[149]
It is common in winter for the rain-snow line to set up in the metro area.[150]Freezing rain and sleet occur a few times some winters in the area, as warm air overrides cold air at the low to mid-levels of the atmosphere. When the wind blows from the east, the cold air getsdammed against the mountains to the west and the result is freezing rain or sleet.
Likeall of Maryland, Baltimore is at risk for increased impacts ofclimate change. Historically, flooding has ruined houses and almost killed people, especially in lower income majority Black neighborhoods, and caused sewage backups, given the existing disrepair of Baltimore's water system.[151]
Extreme temperatures range from −7 °F (−22 °C), which has occurred 5 times on January 17, 1982, January 22, 1984, 29 January, 1963, February 9, 1934, andFebruary 10, 1899,[d] up to 108 °F (42 °C) on July 22, 2011.[152][153] On average, temperatures of 100 °F (38 °C) or more occur on three days annually, 90 °F (32 °C) or more on 43 days, and there are nine days where the high fails to reach the freezing mark.[143]
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found onPhabricator and onMediaWiki.org.
Baltimore reached a peak population of 949,708 at the 1950 U.S. census count. In every ten-year census count since then, the city has lost population, with its 2020 census population at 585,708. In 2011, then-MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake said one of her goals was to increase the city's population, by improving city services to reduce the number of people leaving the city, and by passing legislation protecting immigrants' rights to stimulate growth.[162] Baltimore is identified as asanctuary city.[163] In 2019, then-MayorJack Young said that Baltimore will not assistICE agents with immigration raids.[164]
Baltimore City's population declined from 620,961 in 2010 to 585,708 in 2020, representing a 5.7% drop. In 2020, Baltimore lost more population than any other major city in theUnited States. The population increased for the first time in decades in 2024.[165][166][167]
Gentrification has increased since the 2000 census, primarily in East Baltimore, downtown, and Central Baltimore, with 14.8% of census tracts having had income growth and home values appreciation at a rate higher than the city overall. Many, but not all, gentrifying neighborhoods are predominantly white areas which have seen a turnover from lower income to higher income households. These areas represent either expansion of existing gentrified areas, or activity around the Inner Harbor, downtown, or the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus.[168] In some neighborhoods in East Baltimore, the Hispanic population has increased, while both the non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black populations have declined.[169]
AfterNew York City, Baltimore was the second city in the United States to reach a population of 100,000.[170][171] From the 1820 to 1850 U.S. censuses, Baltimore was the second most-populous city,[171][172] before being surpassed byPhiladelphia and the then-independentBrooklyn in 1860, and then being surpassed bySt. Louis andChicago in 1870.[173] Baltimore was among the top 10 cities in population in the United States in every census up to the 1980 census.[174] After World War II, Baltimore had a population approaching 1 million, until the population began to fall after the 1950 census.
Baltimore city, Maryland – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As per the 2020 census, 8.1% of residents between 2016 and 2020 were foreign born persons.[175] Females made up 53.4% of the population. The median age was 35 years old, with 22.4% under 18 years old, 65.8% from 18 to 64 years old, and 11.8% 65 or older.[16]
Baltimore has a largeCaribbean American population, with the largest groups beingJamaicans andTrinidadians. Baltimore's Jamaican community is largely centered in thePark Heights neighborhood, but generations of immigrants have also lived in Southeast Baltimore.[181]
Between 2016 and 2020, the median household income was $52,164 and the median income per capita was $32,699, compared to the national averages of $64,994 and $35,384, respectively.[175] In 2009, the median household income was $42,241 and the median income per capita was $25,707, compared to the national median income of $53,889 per household and $28,930 per capita.[16]
In 2009, 23.7% of the population lived below the poverty line, compared to 13.5% nationwide.[16] In the 2020 census, 20% of Baltimore residents were living in poverty, compared to 11.6% nationwide.[175]
Housing in Baltimore is relatively inexpensive for large, near-coastal cities of its size. The median sale price for homes in Baltimore as of December 2022 was $209,000, up from $95,000 in 2012.[184][185] Despite the late 2000s housing price collapse, and along with the national trends, Baltimore residents still faced slowly increasing rent, up 3% in the summer of 2010.[186] The median value of owner-occupied housing units between 2016 and 2020 was $242,499.[175]
Thehomeless population in Baltimore is steadily increasing. It exceeded 4,000 people in 2011. The increase in the number of young homeless people was particularly severe.[187]
In 2015, the life expectancy in Baltimore was 74 to 75 years, compared to the U.S. average of 78 to 80. Fourteen neighborhoods (Washington Village, Brooklyn/Curtis Bay, Southern Park Heights, Pimlico/Arlington/Hilltop, Cherry Hill,Sandton-Winchester, Midway/Coldstream, Southwest Baltimore, Greenmount East, Madison/East End, Upton/Druid Heights,Poppleton, Clifton-Berea, and Downtown/Seton Hill.[188]) had lower life expectancies thanNorth Korea.[188] The life expectancy inDowntown/Seton Hill was comparable to that ofYemen.[188]
In 2015, 25% of adults in Baltimore reported affiliation with no religion. 50% of the adult population of Baltimore areProtestants.[h]Catholicism is the second-largest religious affiliation, constituting 15% percent of the population, followed byJudaism (3%) andIslam (2%). Around 1% identify with otherChristian denominations.[189][190][191]
In 2010, 91% (526,705) of Baltimore residents five years old and older spoke only English at home. Close to 4% (21,661) spoke Spanish. Other languages, such asAfrican languages, French, and Chinese are spoken by less than 1% of the population.[192]
Once a predominantly industrial town, with an economic base focused on steel processing, shipping, auto manufacturing (General MotorsBaltimore Assembly), and transportation, Baltimore experienceddeindustrialization, which cost residents tens of thousands of low-skill, high-wage jobs.[193] Baltimore now relies on a low-wageservice economy, which accounts for 31% of jobs in the city.[194][195] Around the turn of the 20th century, Baltimore was the leading U.S. manufacturer ofrye whiskey andstraw hats. It led in the refining of crude oil, brought to the city by pipeline from Pennsylvania.[196][197][198]
In March 2018, Baltimore's unemployment rate was 5.8%.[199] In 2012, one quarter of Baltimore residents, and 37% of Baltimore children, lived in poverty.[200] The 2012 closure of a major steel plant at Sparrows Point is expected to have a further impact on employment and the local economy.[201] In 2013, 207,000 workers commuted into Baltimore city each day.[202]Downtown Baltimore is the primary economic asset within Baltimore City and the region, with 29.1 million square feet of office space. The tech sector is rapidly growing as the Baltimore metro ranks 8th in the CBRE Tech Talent Report among 50 U.S. metro areas for high growth rate and number of tech professionals.[203] In 2013,Forbes ranked Baltimore fourth among America's "new tech hot spots".[204]
Almost a quarter of the jobs in the Baltimore region were in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as of mid-2013, a fact attributed in part to the city's extensive undergraduate and graduate schools; maintenance and repair experts were included in this count.[208]
The center of international commerce for the region is theWorld Trade Center Baltimore. It houses the Maryland Port Administration and U.S. headquarters for major shipping lines. Baltimore is ranked 9th for total dollar value of cargo and 13th for cargo tonnage for all U.S. ports. In 2014, total cargo moving through the port totaled 29.5 million tons, down from 30.3 million tons in 2013. The value of cargo traveling through the port in 2014 came to $52.5 billion, down from $52.6 billion in 2013. ThePort of Baltimore generates $3 billion in annual wages and salary, as well as supporting 14,630 direct jobs and 108,000 jobs connected to port work. In 2014, the port generated more than $300 million in taxes.[209]
The port serves over 50 ocean carriers, making nearly 1,800 annual visits. Among all U.S. ports, Baltimore is first in handling automobiles, light trucks, farm and construction machinery; and imported forest products, aluminum, and sugar. The port is second in coal exports. The Port of Baltimore's cruise industry, which offers year-round trips on several lines, supports over 400 jobs and brings in over $63 million to Maryland's economy annually.
Baltimore's history and attractions have made it a popular tourist destination. In 2014, the city hosted 24.5 million visitors, who spent $5.2 billion.[210] The Baltimore Visitor Center, which is operated byVisit Baltimore, is located on Light Street in the Inner Harbor. Much of the city's tourism centers around the Inner Harbor, with theNational Aquarium being Maryland's top tourist destination. Baltimore Harbor's restoration has made it "a city of boats", with several historic ships and other attractions on display and open to the public. TheUSSConstellation, the last Civil War-era vessel afloat, is docked at the head of the Inner Harbor; theUSSTorsk, a submarine that holds the Navy's record for dives (more than 10,000); and the Coast Guard cutterWHEC-37, the last surviving U.S. warship that was inPearl Harbor during theJapanese attack on December 7, 1941, and which engaged Japanese Zero aircraft during the battle.[211]
Also docked is thelightshipChesapeake, which for decades marked the entrance to Chesapeake Bay; and the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, the oldest survivingscrew-pile lighthouse on Chesapeake Bay, which once marked the mouth of the Patapsco River and the entrance to Baltimore. All of these attractions are owned and maintained by theHistoric Ships in Baltimore organization. The Inner Harbor is also the home port ofPride of Baltimore II, the state of Maryland's "goodwill ambassador" ship, a reconstruction of a famousBaltimore Clipper ship.[211]
Baltimore has historically been a working-class port town, sometimes dubbed a "city of neighborhoods". It comprises 72 designated historic districts[212] traditionally occupied by distinct ethnic groups. Most notable today are three downtown areas along the port: the Inner Harbor, frequented by tourists because of its hotels, shops, and museums; Fells Point, once a favorite entertainment spot for sailors but now refurbished and gentrified (and featured in the movieSleepless in Seattle); andLittle Italy which is located between the other two and is where Baltimore's Italian-American community is based.
Further inland,Mount Vernon is the traditional center of cultural and artistic life of the city. It is home to a distinctiveWashington Monument, set atop a hill in a 19th-century urban square, that predates the monument in Washington, D.C. by several decades. Baltimore has a significantGerman American population,[213] and was the second-largest port of immigration to the United States behindEllis Island in New York and New Jersey.
Between 1820 and 1989, almost 2 million German,Polish, English, Irish,Russian,Lithuanian,French,Ukrainian,Czech,Greek andItalian migrants came to Baltimore, mostly between 1861 and 1930. By 1913, when Baltimore was averaging forty thousand immigrants per year, World War I closed off the flow of immigrants. By 1970, Baltimore's heyday as an immigration center was a distant memory. There was aChinatown dating back to at least the 1880s, which consisted of 400 Chinese residents. A local Chinese-American association remains based there, with one Chinese restaurant as of 2009.
Beer making thrived in Baltimore from the 1800s to the 1950s, with over 100 old breweries in the city's past.[214] The best remaining example of that history is the oldAmerican Brewery Building on North Gay Street and theNational Brewing Company building in theBrewer's Hill neighborhood. In the 1940s the National Brewing Company introduced the nation's first six-pack. National's two most prominent brands, wereNational Bohemian Beer colloquially "Natty Boh" andColt 45. Listed on thePabst website as a "Fun Fact", Colt 45 was named after running back#45 Jerry Hill of the 1963Baltimore Colts and not the.45 caliber handgun ammunition round. Both brands are still made today, albeit outside of Maryland, and served all around the Baltimore area at bars, as well asOrioles andRavens games.[215] The Natty Boh logo appears on all cans, bottles, and packaging. Merchandise featuring him can be found in shops in Maryland, including several inFells Point.
Each year theArtscape takes place in the city in theBolton Hill neighborhood, close to the Maryland Institute College of Art. Artscape styles itself as the "largest free arts festival in America".[216] Each May, theMaryland Film Festival takes place in Baltimore, using all five screens of the historicCharles Theatre as its anchor venue. Many movies and television shows have been filmed in Baltimore.Homicide: Life on the Street was set and filmed in Baltimore, as well asThe Wire.House of Cards andVeep are set in Washington, D.C. but filmed in Baltimore.[217]
Baltimore is known for its Marylandblue crabs, crab cake,Old Bay Seasoning,pit beef, and the "chicken box" (chicken wings with french fries). The city has many restaurants in or around the Inner Harbor. The most known and acclaimed are the Charleston, Woodberry Kitchen, and theCharm City Cakes bakery featured on the Food Network'sAce of Cakes. TheLittle Italy neighborhood's biggest draw is the food. Fells Point also is a foodie neighborhood for tourists and locals and is where the oldest continuously running tavern in the country, "The Horse You Came in on Saloon", is located.[220]
Many of Baltimore's upscale restaurants are found in Harbor East. Five public markets are located across Baltimore. TheBaltimore Public Market System is the oldest continuously operating public market system in the United States.[221]Lexington Market is one of the longest-running markets in the world and the longest running in the country, having been around since 1782. The market continues to stand at its original site. Baltimore is the last place in America where one can still findarabbers, vendors who sell fresh fruits and vegetables from a horse-drawn cart that goes up and down neighborhood streets.[222] Food- and drink-rating siteZagat ranked Baltimore second in a list of the 17 best food cities in the US in 2015.[223]
The so-called "Bawlmerese" accent is known for its characteristic pronunciation of its long "o" vowel, in which an "eh" sound is added before the long "o" sound (/oʊ/ shifts to [ɘʊ], or even [eʊ]).[226] It adopts Philadelphia's pattern of the short "a" sound, such that the tensed vowel in words like "bath" or "ask" does not match the more relaxed one in "sad" or "act".[224]
The Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts, a non-profit organization, produces events and arts programs as well as managing several facilities. It is the official Baltimore City Arts Council. BOPA coordinates Baltimore's major events, including New Year's Eve and July 4 celebrations at the Inner Harbor,Artscape, which is America's largest free arts festival, Baltimore Book Festival, Baltimore Farmers' Market & Bazaar, School 33 Art Center's Open Studio Tour, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade.[230]
TheBaltimore Symphony Orchestra is an internationally renowned orchestra, founded in 1916 as a publicly funded municipal organization. Its most recent music director wasMarin Alsop, a protégé ofLeonard Bernstein's.Centerstage is the premier theater company in the city and a regionally well-respected group. TheLyric Opera House is the home ofLyric Opera Baltimore, which operates there as part of the Patricia and Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center. Shriver Hall Concert Series, founded in 1966, presents classical chamber music and recitals featuring nationally and internationally recognized artists.[231]
The Baltimore Consort has been a leading early music ensemble for over twenty-five years. The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, home of the restoredThomas W. Lamb-designedHippodrome Theatre, has afforded Baltimore the opportunity to become a major regional player in the area of touring Broadway and other performing arts presentations. Renovating Baltimore's historic theatres has become widespread throughout the city. Renovated theatres include theEveryman, Centre,Senator, and most recentlyParkway Theatre. Other buildings have been reused. These include the formerMercantile Deposit and Trust Company bank building, which is nowThe Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theater.
Baltimore has a wide array of professional (non-touring) and community theater groups. Aside from Center Stage, resident troupes in the city include The Vagabond Players, the oldest continuously operating community theater group in the country,Everyman Theatre,Single Carrot Theatre, and Baltimore Theatre Festival. Community theaters in the city include Fells Point Community Theatre and theArena Players Inc., which is the nation's oldest continuously operating African American community theater.[232] In 2009, theBaltimore Rock Opera Society, an all-volunteer theatrical company, launched its first production.[233]
ThePeabody Institute, located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, is the oldest conservatory of music in the United States.[235] Established in 1857, it is one of the most prestigious in the world,[235] along withJuilliard,Eastman, and theCurtis Institute. TheMorgan State University Choir is also one of the nation's most prestigious university choral ensembles.[236] The city is home to theBaltimore School for the Arts, a public high school in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. The institution is nationally recognized for its success in preparation for students entering music (vocal/instrumental), theatre (acting/theater production), dance, and visual arts.
In 1981, Baltimore hosted the first International Theater Festival, the first such festival in the country. Executive producer Al Kraizer staged 66 performances of nine shows by internationaltheatre companies, including from Ireland, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Israel.[237] The festival proved to be expensive to mount, and in 1982 the festival was hosted in Denver, called the World Theatre Festival,[238] at theDenver Center for Performing Arts, after the city had asked Kraizer to organize it.[239]
In June 1986, the 20th Theatre of Nations, sponsored by theInternational Theatre Institute, was held in Baltimore, the first time it had been held in the U.S.[240]
Baltimore has a long and storied baseball history, including its distinction as the birthplace ofBabe Ruth in 1895. The original19th century Baltimore Orioles were one of the most successful early franchises, featuring numerous hall of famers during its years from 1882 to 1899.As one of the eight inaugural American League franchises, the Baltimore Orioles played in the AL during the 1901 and 1902 seasons. The team moved to New York City before the 1903 season and was renamed the New York Highlanders, which later became theNew York Yankees.Ruth played for theminor league Baltimore Orioles team, which was active from 1903 to 1914. After playing one season in 1915 as the Richmond Climbers, the team returned the following year to Baltimore, where it played as the Orioles until 1953.[citation needed]
The team currently known as theBaltimore Orioles has represented Major League Baseball locally since 1954 when theSt. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore. The Orioles advanced to the World Series in 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979 and 1983, winning three times (1966, 1970 and 1983), while making the playoffs all but one year (1972) from 1969 through 1974.[241]
Prior to aNational Football League team moving to Baltimore, there had been several attempts at a professional football team prior to the 1950s, which were blocked by the Washington team and its NFL friends. Most were minor league orsemi-professional teams. The first major league to base a team in Baltimore was theAll-America Football Conference (AAFC), which had a team named theBaltimore Colts. The AAFC Colts played for three seasons in the AAFC (1947, 1948, and 1949), and when the AAFC folded following the 1949 season, moved to the NFL for a single year (1950) before going bankrupt.
The NFL returned to Baltimore when the formerCleveland Browns personnel moved to Baltimore and established theBaltimore Ravens in 1996. Since then, the Ravens won a Super Bowl championship in2000 and2012, eightAFC North division championships (2003, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019, 2023, and 2024), and appeared in fiveAFC Championship Games (2000, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2023).[243]
Collegelacrosse is a common sport in the spring, as theJohns Hopkins Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has won 44 national championships, the most of any program in history. In addition,Loyola University won its first men'sNCAA lacrosse championship in 2012.
TheBaltimore Grand Prix debuted along the streets of the Inner Harbor section of the city's downtown on September 2–4, 2011. The event played host to theAmerican Le Mans Series on Saturday and theIndyCar Series on Sunday. Support races from smaller series were also held, includingIndy Lights. After three consecutive years, on September 13, 2013, it was announced that the event would not be held in 2014 or 2015 due to scheduling conflicts.[247]
The athletic equipment companyUnder Armour is also based in Baltimore. Founded in 1996 byKevin Plank, aUniversity of Maryland alumnus, the company's headquarters are located in Tide Point, adjacent toFort McHenry and theDomino Sugar factory. TheBaltimore Marathon is the flagship race of several races. The marathon begins atCamden Yards and travels through many diverse neighborhoods of Baltimore, including the scenic Inner Harbor waterfront area, historic Federal Hill,Fells Point, andCanton, Baltimore. The race then proceeds to other important focal points of the city such asPatterson Park, Clifton Park, Lake Montebello, the Charles Village neighborhood, and the western edge of downtown. After winding through 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi) of Baltimore, the race ends at virtually the same point at which it starts.
Baltimore is anindependent city, and not part of anycounty. For most governmental purposes under Maryland law, Baltimore City is treated as a county-level entity. TheUnited States Census Bureau uses counties as the basic unit for presentation of statistical information in the United States, and treats Baltimore as a county equivalent for those purposes.
Baltimore has been aDemocratic stronghold for over 150 years, with Democrats dominating every level of government. In virtually all elections, the Democratic primary is the real contest.[250] As of the 2020 elections, registered Democrats outnumbered registeredRepublicans by almost 10-to-1.[251] No Republican has been elected to the City Council since 1939. The city's last Republican mayor,Theodore McKeldin, left office in 1967. No Republican candidate since then has received 30 percent or more of the vote. In the2016 and2020 mayoral elections, the Republicans were pushed into third place by write-in and independent candidates, respectively. The last Republican candidate for president to win the city wasDwight Eisenhower in his successful reelection bid in 1956.
Scott succeededJack Young, who took office on May 2, 2019. Young had been the president of theBaltimore City Council when MayorCatherine Pugh was accused of aself-dealing book-sales arrangement. He became acting mayor on April 2 when she took a leave of absence, then mayor upon her resignation.[254][255]
Pugh, a Democrat, won the2016 mayoral election with 57.1% of the vote and took office on December 6, 2016.[256]
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake assumed the office of Mayor on February 4, 2010, when predecessor Dixon's resignation became effective.[257] Rawlings-Blake had been serving as City Council President at the time. She was elected to a full term in 2011, defeating Pugh in the primary election and receiving 84% of the vote.[258]
Sheila Dixon became the first female mayor of Baltimore on January 17, 2007. As the former City Council President, she assumed the office of Mayor when former MayorMartin O'Malley took office as Governor of Maryland.[259] On November 6, 2007, Dixon won theBaltimore mayoral election. Mayor Dixon's administration ended less than three years after her election, the result of a criminal investigation that began in 2006 while she was still City Council President. She was convicted on a single misdemeanor charge ofembezzlement on December 1, 2009. A month later, Dixon made anAlford plea to aperjury charge and agreed to resign from office; Maryland, like most states, does not allow convicted felons to hold office.[260][261]
TheBaltimore City Council is made up of 14 members elected from single-member districts and a council president elected at-large.[262][263] The council president isex officiomayor pro tempore; if the mayor's office falls vacant, the council president ascends as mayor for the balance of the term.
Grassroots pressure for reform, voiced asQuestion P, restructured the city council in November 2002, against the will of the mayor, the council president, and the majority of the council. A coalition of union and community groups, organized by theAssociation of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), backed the effort.[264]
Courthouse East in Baltimore is a historic combined post office and federal courthouse in Battle Monument Square.
TheBaltimore City Police Department is the current primary law enforcement agency serving Baltimore citizens. It was founded 1784 as a "Night City Watch" and day Constables system and later reorganized as a City Department in 1853, with a later reorganization under State of Maryland supervision in 1859, with appointments made by theGovernor of Maryland after a period of civic and elections violence with riots in the later part of the decade. Campus and building security for the city'spublic schools is provided by the Baltimore City Public Schools Police, established in the 1970s.
In the four-year span of 2011 to 2015, 120 lawsuits were brought against Baltimore police for alleged brutality and misconduct. The Freddie Gray settlement of $6.4 million exceeds the combined total settlements of the 120 lawsuits, as state law caps such payments.[265]
Law enforcement on the fleet of transit buses and transit rail systems serving Baltimore is the responsibility of theMaryland Transit Administration Police, which is part of the Maryland Transit Administration of the stateDepartment of Transportation. The MTA Police also share jurisdiction authority with the Baltimore City Police, governed by a memorandum of understanding.[266]
As the enforcement arm of the Baltimore circuit and district court system, theBaltimore City Sheriff's Office, created by state constitutional amendment in 1844, is responsible for the security of city courthouses and property, service of court-ordered writs, protective and peace orders, warrants, tax levies, prisoner transportation and traffic enforcement. Deputy Sheriffs are sworn law enforcement officials, with full arrest authority granted by the constitution of Maryland, theMaryland Police and Correctional Training Commission and the Sheriff of Baltimore.[267]
TheUnited States Coast Guard, operating out of their shipyard and facility (since 1899) at Arundel Cove onCurtis Creek, (off Pennington Avenue extending to Hawkins Point Road/Fort Smallwood Road) in theCurtis Bay section of southern Baltimore City and adjacent northern Anne Arundel County. The U.S.C.G. also operates and maintains a presence on Baltimore and Maryland waterways in thePatapsco River andChesapeake Bay. "Sector Baltimore" is responsible for commanding law enforcement and search & rescue units as well as aids to navigation.
Baltimore is considered one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S.[268] Experts say an emerging gang presence and heavy recruitment of adolescent boys into these gangs, who are statistically more likely to get serious charges reduced or dropped, are major reasons for the sustained crime crises in the city.[269][270] Overall reported crime dropped by 60% from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, but homicides and gun violence remain high and far exceed the national average.[271]
The worst years for crime in Baltimore overall were from 1993 to 1996, with 96,243 crimes reported in 1995. Baltimore's 344 homicides in 2015 represented the highest homicide rate in the city's recorded history—52.5 per 100,000 people, surpassing the record ratio set in 1993—and the second-highest for U.S. cities behindSt. Louis and ahead ofDetroit. Of Baltimore's 344 homicides in 2015, 321 (93.3%) of the victims were African-American.[271]
Drug use and deaths by drug use, particularly drugs used intravenously, such as heroin, are a related problem which has impaired Baltimore for decades. Among cities greater than 400,000, Baltimore ranked 2nd in its opiate drug death rate in the United States. TheDEA reported that 10% of Baltimore's population – about 64,000 people – are addicted to heroin, most of which is trafficked into the city from New York.[272][273][274][275][276]
In 2011, Baltimore police reported 196 homicides, the lowest number in the city since 197 homicides in 1978, and far lower than the peak homicide count of 353 slayings in 1993. City leaders at the time credited a sustained focus on repeat violent offenders and increased community engagement for the continued drop, reflecting a nationwide decline in crime.[277][278]
In August 2014, Baltimore's new youthcurfew law went into effect. It prohibits unaccompanied children under age 14 from being on the streets after 9 p.m. and those aged 14–16 from being out after 10 p.m. during the week and 11 p.m. on weekends and during the summer. The goal is to keep children out of dangerous places and reduce crime.[279]
Crime in Baltimore reached another peak in 2015 when the year's tally of 344 homicides was second only to the record 353 in 1993, when Baltimore had about 100,000 more residents. The killings in 2015 were on pace with recent years in the early months of 2015, but skyrocketed after theunrest and rioting of late April following thekilling of Freddie Gray by police. In five of the next eight months, killings topped 30–40 per month. Nearly 90 percent of 2015's homicides resulted from shootings, renewing calls for new gun laws. In 2016, there were 318 murders in the city.[280] This total marked a 7.56 percent decline in homicides from 2015.
In an interview withThe Guardian on November 2, 2017,[281]David Simon, himself a former police reporter forThe Baltimore Sun, ascribed the most recent surge in murders to the high-profile decision by Baltimore state's attorney,Marilyn Mosby, to charge six city police officers following thedeath of Freddie Gray after he was paralyzed during a "rough-ride" in a police van while in police custody in April 2015, dying from the injury a week later. "What Mosby basically did was send a message to the Baltimore police department: 'I'm going to put you in jail for making a bad arrest.' So officers figured it out: 'I can go to jail for making the wrong arrest, so I'm not getting out of my car to clear a corner,' and that's exactly what happened post-Freddie Gray."[281]
In Baltimore, "arrest numbers have plummeted from more than 40,000 in 2014, the year before Gray's death and the charges against the officers, to about 18,000 [as of November 2017]. This happened as homicides soared from 211 in 2014 to 344 in 2015 – an increase of 63%."[281] Simon's HBO miniseriesWe Own This City aired in April 2022 and covered many of the events surrounding the death of Freddie Gray and the workslowdown by the Baltimore Police Department during that time period.
In the six years between 2016 and 2022, Baltimore tallied 318, 342, 309, 348, 335, 338, and 335 homicides, respectively.[282] In 2023, Baltimore saw a 20% drop in homicides to 263.[283] In 2024, the city again saw a drop in homicides, to 200.[284]
Baltimore is protected by the over 1,800 professional firefighters of the Baltimore City Fire Department (BCFD). It was founded in December 1858 and began operating the following year. Replacing several warring independent volunteer companies since the 1770s and the confusion resulting froma riot involving the "Know-Nothing" political party two years before, the establishment of a unified professional fire fighting force was a major advance in urban governance. The BCFD operates out of 37 fire stations located throughout the city and has a long history and sets of traditions in its various houses and divisions.
Since the legislativeredistricting in 2002, Baltimore has had six legislative districts located entirely within its boundaries, giving the city six seats in the 47-memberMaryland Senate and 14 in the 141-memberMaryland House of Delegates.[285][286] During the previous 10-year period, Baltimore had four legislative districts within the city limits, but four others overlapped the Baltimore County line.[287] As of October 2024[update], all of Baltimore's state senators and delegates were Democrats.[285]
Baltimore is split between two of the state's eightcongressional districts. Most of the city is included in the7th district, represented byKweisi Mfume. A sliver of northern Baltimore is located in the2nd district, represented byJohnny Olszewski. Both are Democrats. A Republican has not represented a significant portion of Baltimore in Congress sinceJohn Boynton Philip Clayton Hill represented the3rd District in 1927, and has not represented any of Baltimore since theEastern Shore-based 1st District lost its share of Baltimore after the 2000 census. It was represented by RepublicanWayne Gilchrest at the time.
Maryland's formerUnited States senator,Ben Cardin, is from Baltimore. He is one of three people in the last four decades to have represented the 3rd District, which for decades included much of inner Baltimore, before being elected to theUnited States Senate.Paul Sarbanes represented the 3rd from 1971 until 1977, when he was elected to the first of five terms in the Senate. Sarbanes was succeeded byBarbara Mikulski, who represented the 3rd from 1977 to 1987. Mikulski was succeeded by Cardin, who held the seat until handing it to John Sarbanes upon his election to the Senate in 2007.[288]
United States presidential election results for Baltimore, Maryland[289]
Baltimore is the home of numerous places of higher learning, both public and private. 100,000 college students from around the country attend Baltimore City's 10 accredited two-year or four-year colleges and universities.[292][293] Among them are:
Baltimore has a higher-than-average percentage of households without a car. In 2015, 30.7 percent of Baltimore households lacked a car, which decreased slightly to 28.9 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Baltimore averaged 1.65 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.[299]
Baltimore's highway growth has done much to influence the development of the city and its suburbs. The firstlimited-access highway serving Baltimore was theBaltimore–Washington Parkway, which opened in stages between 1950 and 1954. Maintenance of it is split: the half closest to Baltimore is maintained by the state of Maryland, and the half closest to Washington by theNational Park Service. Trucks are only permitted to use the northern part of the parkway. Trucks (tractor-trailers) continued to useU.S. Route 1 (US 1) untilInterstate 95 (I-95) between Baltimore and Washington opened in 1971.
The Interstate highways serving Baltimore areI-70,I-83 (the Jones Falls Expressway), I-95,I-395,I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway),I-795 (the Northwest Expressway),I-895 (the Harbor Tunnel Thruway), andI-97. The city's mainline Interstate highways—I-95, I-83, and I-70—do not directly connect to each other, and in the case of I-70 end at a park and ride lot just inside the city limits, because offreeway revolts in Baltimore. These revolts were led primarily byBarbara Mikulski, a formerUnited States senator for Maryland, which resulted in the abandonment of the original plan.
There are two tunnels traversing Baltimore Harbor within the city limits: the four-boreFort McHenry Tunnel (opened in 1985 and serving I-95) and the two-boreHarbor Tunnel (opened in 1957 and serving I-895). Untilits collapse in March 2024, the Baltimore Beltway crossed south of Baltimore Harbor over theFrancis Scott Key Bridge.
The first interstate highway built in Baltimore wasI-83, called the Jones Falls Expressway (first portion built in the early 1960s). Running from the downtown toward the northwest (NNW), it was built through a natural corridor over theJones Falls River, which meant that no residents or housing were directly displaced. A planned section from what is now its southern terminus to I-95 was abandoned. Its route through parkland received criticism.
Planning for the Baltimore Beltway antedates the creation of theInterstate Highway System. The first portion completed was a small strip connecting the two sections of I-83, the Baltimore-Harrisburg Expressway and the Jones Falls Expressway.
The onlyU.S. Highways in the city are US 1, which bypasses downtown, andUS 40, which crosses downtown from east to west. Both run along major surface streets, US 40 utilizes a small section of a freeway cancelled in the 1970s in the west side of the city, originally intended forInterstate 170. State routes in the city travel along surface streets, with the exception ofMaryland Route 295, which carries the Baltimore–Washington Parkway.
The Baltimore City Department of Transportation (BCDOT) is responsible for several functions of the road transportation system in Baltimore, including repairing roads, sidewalks, and alleys; road signs; street lights; and managing the flow of transportation systems.[300] In addition, the agency is in charge of vehicle towing andtraffic cameras.[301][302]
BCDOT maintains all streets within the Baltimore. These include all streets that are marked as state and U.S. highways and portions ofI-83 andI-70 within Baltimore's city limits. The only highways in the city that are not maintained by BCDOT areI-95,I-395,I-695, andI-895, which are maintained by theMaryland Transportation Authority.[303]
The Charm City Circulator (CCC), ashuttle bus service operated by First Transit for the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, began operating in the downtown area in January 2010. Funded partly by a 16 percent increase in the city's parking fees, the Circulator provides free bus service seven days a week, picking up passengers every 15–25 minutes at designated stops during service hours.[306][307] The Charm City Circulator consists of four routes, the Green Route runs from City Hall to Johns Hopkins Hospital via Fells Point, the Purple Route runs from 33rd Street to Federal Hill, the Orange Route runs between Hollins Market and Harbor East, and the Banner Route runs from the Inner Harbor toFort McHenry.[308]
In June 2017, the BaltimoreLink bus network redesign was launched. The BaltimoreLink redesign consisted of a dozen high frequency, color-coded routes branded CityLink, running every 10 to 15 minutes through downtown Baltimore, along with changes to local and express bus service, rebranded LocalLink and ExpressLink.[310]
Baltimore is a top destination forAmtrak along theNortheast Corridor. Baltimore'sPenn Station is one of the busiest in the country. As of 2014, Penn Station was ranked theseventh-busiest rail station in theUnited States by number of passengers served each year.[311] The building sits on a raised "island" of sorts between two open trenches, one for the Jones Falls Expressway and the other for the tracks of the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The NEC approaches from the south through the two-track, 7,660 feet (2,330 m)Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, which opened in 1873 and whose 30 mph (50 km/h) limit, sharp curves, and steep grades make it one of the NEC's worst bottlenecks. The NEC's northern approach is the 1873Union Tunnel, which has onesingle-track bore and onedouble-track bore.
Baltimore has a comprehensive system of bicycle routes in the city. These routes are not numbered, but are typically denoted with green signs displaying a silhouette of a bicycle upon an outline of the city's border, and denote the distance to destinations, much like bicycle routes in the rest of the state. The roads carrying bicycle routes are also labelled with either bike lanes, sharrows, or Share the Road signs. Many of these routes pass through the downtown area. The network of bicycle lanes in the city continues to expand, with over 140 miles (230 km) added between 2006 and 2014.[315] Alongside bike lanes, Baltimore has also builtbike boulevards, starting with Guilford Avenue in 2012.
Baltimore has three major trail systems within the city. TheGwynns Falls Trail runs from the Inner Harbor to the I-70 Park and Ride, passing throughGwynns Falls Park and possessing numerous branches. There are also many pedestrian hiking trails traversing the park. TheJones Falls Trail runs from the Inner Harbor to the Cylburn Arboretum. It is undergoing expansion. Long-term plans call for it to extend to theMount Washington Light Rail Stop, and possibly as far north as the Falls Road stop to connect to the Robert E. Lee boardwalk north of the city. It will incorporate a spur alongside Western Run. The two aforementioned trails carry sections of theEast Coast Greenway through the city.
The Herring Run Trail runs fromHarford Road east, to its end beyond Sinclair Lane, utilizing Herring Run Park. Long-term plans call for its extension toMorgan State University and north to points beyond. Other major bicycle projects include a protected cycle track installed on both Maryland Avenue and Mount Royal Avenue, expected to become the backbone of a downtown bicycle network. Installation for the cycletracks is expected in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
In addition to the bicycle trails and cycletracks, Baltimore has the Stony Run Trail, a walking path that will eventually connect from the Jones Falls north to Northern Parkway, utilizing much of the old Ma and Pa Railroad corridor inside the city. In 2011, the city undertook a campaign to reconstruct many sidewalk ramps in the city, coinciding with mass resurfacing of the city's streets. A 2011 study byWalk Score ranked Baltimore the 14th-most walkable of fifty largest U.S. cities.[316]
The port was founded in 1706, preceding the founding of Baltimore. The Maryland colonial legislature made the area nearLocust Point as theport of entry for thetobacco trade with England. Fells Point, the deepest point in the natural harbor, soon became the colony's main ship building center, later on becoming leader in the construction ofclipper ships.[317]
After Baltimore's founding, mills were built behind the wharves. TheCalifornia Gold Rush led to many orders for fast vessels. Many overland pioneers also relied upon canned goods from Baltimore. After the Civil War, a coffee ship was designed here for trade withBrazil. At the end of the nineteenth century, European ship lines had terminals for immigrants. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made the port a majortransshipment point.[318]: 17, 75 The port has majorroll-on/roll-off facilities, as well as bulk facilities, especially steel handling.[319]
Water taxis operate in the Inner Harbor. Governor Ehrlich participated in naming the port afterHelen Delich Bentley during the 300th anniversary of the port.[320]
In 2007,Duke Realty Corporation began a new development near the Port of Baltimore, named the Chesapeake Commerce Center. This new industrial park is located on the site of a former General Motors plant. The total project comprises 184 acres (0.74 km2) in eastern Baltimore City, and the site will yield 2,800,000 square feet (260,000 m2) of warehouse/distribution and office space. Chesapeake Commerce Center has direct access to two major Interstate highways (I-95 andI-895) and is located adjacent to two of the major Port of Baltimore terminals. The Port of Baltimore is one of two seaports on the U.S. East Coast with a 50-foot (15 m) dredge to accommodate the largest shipping vessels.[321]
Along with cargo terminals, the port also has a passenger cruise terminal, which offers year-round trips on several lines, including Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas and Carnival's Pride. Overall five cruise lines have operated out of the port to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, while some ships traveled to New England and Canada. The terminal has become an embarkation point where passengers have the opportunity to park and board next to the ship visible from Interstate 95.[322]
Baltimore has four water wheel trash interceptors for removing garbage in area waterways. One is at the mouth ofJones Falls in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, dubbed "Mr. Trash Wheel".[324] Another, "Professor Trash Wheel" was added at Harris Creek in theCanton neighborhood in 2016,[325][326] with "Captain Trash Wheel" following at Mason Creek in 2018[327] and "Gwynnda, the Good Wheel of the West" at the mouth of theGwynns Falls in 2021.[328] A February 2015 agreement with a local waste-to-energy plant is believed to make Baltimore the first city to use reclaimed waterway debris to generate electricity.[329]
In August 2010, the National Aquarium assembled, planted, and launched afloating wetland island designed by Biohabitats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.[330] Hundreds of years ago, Baltimore's harbor shoreline would have been lined with tidalwetlands. Biohabitats also developed a concept to transform a dilapidated wharf into a living pier that cleans Harbor water, provides habitat and is an aesthetic attraction. Currently under design, the top of the pier will become aconstructed tidal wetland.[331]
Other projects to improve water quality include the Blue Alleys project, expanded street sweeping, and stream restoration.[324]
Since 1985 theWheelabrator Baltimore incinerator, formerly known as the Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Co., has operated as awaste-to-energy incinerator. The incinerator is a significant source of air pollution to nearby neighborhoods. Several environmental groups, such as theEnvironmental Integrity Project, and theChesapeake Climate Action Network, have been successful in advocating for reinforced pollution monitoring. The incinerator is the city's single largest standing source of air pollution.[332]
Baltimore's main media outlet since 2010 isThe Baltimore Sun which was sold by its Baltimore owners in 1986 to the Times Mirror Company,[333] and then bought by theTribune Company in 2000.[334] Since the sale,The Baltimore Sun prints some local news along with regional and national articles. TheBaltimore News-American, another long-running paper that competed with the Sun, ceased publication in 1986.[335]
In 2006,The Baltimore Examiner was launched to compete withThe Sun. It was part of a national chain that includesThe San Francisco Examiner andThe Washington Examiner. In contrast to the paid subscriptionSun,The Examiner was a free newspaper funded solely by advertisements. Unable to turn a profit and facing a deep recession,The Baltimore Examiner ceased publication on February 15, 2009.[338]
Nielsen ranked Baltimore as the 27th-largesttelevision market in 2009.[339] Arbitron's Fall 2010 rankings identified Baltimore as the 22nd-largest radio market.[340]
Edgar Allan Poe lived in several different cities including Baltimore, which is where he died and was buried. Several of his works were inspired and written during his time in the city including "MS. Found in a Bottle" and "Berenice".
In 1922,F. Scott Fitzgerald published the short story,The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is about a man born in Baltimore who ages backwards. Though primarily fromMinnesota, F. Scott Fitzgerald had deep ties to Baltimore. He was a descendant of numerous pre-colonial Maryland families and the namesake of his distant cousin,Francis Scott Key. His first editor was the "Sage of Baltimore",H.L. Mencken. Fitzgerald lived in Baltimore for five years in the 1930s. Though the Fitzgeralds settled in Baltimore so that Zelda could seek psychiatric care at Henry Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins and theSheppard-Pratt Hospital, their time in Baltimore was the most stable the family enjoyed.[341]
James Michener's 1978 book,Chesapeake, largely takes place on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but contains numerous references to Baltimore.
In 2008, journalist, novelist and activistTa-Nehisi Coates published his memoir of growing up in West Baltimore:The Beautiful Struggle. Coates writes of his challenging relationship with his father, troubled experiences in local schools and the street crime and drug epidemic of the 1990s.
In 2010,Rebecca Skloot publishedThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The book documents the life of a Black woman from nearbyTurner Station, who died from cervical cancer. Before her death, she was treated by physicians atJohns Hopkins. Without Mrs. Lacks' consent or even knowledge, they took her cancer cells for research purposes. The cells were then reproduced and used worldwide, though Mrs. Lacks and her descendants were never consulted nor compensated.
Barry Levinson is a film maker and a native Baltimorean. Several of his films pay homage to his upbringing in an immigrant family in the city:Diner (1982),Tin Men (1987),Avalon (1990), andLiberty Heights (1999).
Another Baltimore filmmaker,John Waters, began his career making experimental art films in the city includingRoman Candies andMondo Trasho. As his audience and film budgets expanded, Waters continued to set his films in Baltimore and to premier them at theSenator Theater. His most famous films includeHairspray (1988),Cry Baby (1990), andSerial Mom (1994). Waters has continued to live in Baltimore and remains active in the local arts community.
Other films set in Baltimore have more ominous themes. In the 1964Hitchcock film,Marnie, the title character is originally from Baltimore; her childhood trauma underpins much of the plot. The villain of the 1991 filmThe Silence of the Lambs,Hannibal Lecter had a psychiatric practice in Baltimore and in the film is confined to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. InThe Sum of All Fears (2002), Baltimore is the scene of a nuclear warhead explosion.
Baltimore also figured prominently in the 2011 documentary film:Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey. It focused on the life of Kevin Clash, who grew up in Baltimore and became a prominent puppeteer onSesame Street.
The television representations of Baltimore often involve crime and/or law enforcement. From 1993 to 1998,Homicide: Life on the Street was a police procedural drama that received favorable reviews but low ratings. Several episodes of theX-Files (1993–2002) took place in Baltimore. The most known series set in Baltimore isThe Wire (2002–2008), which was well-received and depicts the city as a war zone between drug trade and the police. In 2022, the limited drama series,We Own This City, premiered starringJon Bernthal and native Baltimorean,Josh Charles.
A different view of Baltimore was seen in the showRoc, which aired from 1991 to 1994. The show was a sit-com starringCharles S. Dutton, who played the titular character. The show focused on the protagonist's balance of his work as a city sanitation worker and his family life. Other main characters are Roc's wife (Eleanor, a nurse), his father (Andrew, a retired Pullman porter) and his brother (Joey).[342]
In Season 9, Episode 10 ("Omega") ofThe Walking Dead,Lydia's backstory is revealed. When the zombie apocalypse begins, Lydia's parents take shelter with others in a crowded basement in Baltimore. They are relatively safe at the onset, listening to radio news updates until they cease, as well as the chaos on the streets outside as the authorities try unsuccessfully to re-establish order.
Other Baltimore television references were less direct:
In 1967, in Season 1, Episode 22 ("Paper Hats and Everything") of the sit-com,That Girl, the protagonist's mother goes to visit her aunt in Baltimore.
In 1994, in Season 6, Episode 5 ("The Robe") ofNorthern Exposure, Dr. Fleishman does a clinical trial with Johns Hopkins and has phone calls with people in Baltimore.
^Since 1950, when the National Weather Service switched to using the suburban and generally cooler BWI Airport as the official Baltimore climatology station, this extreme has repeated three times: January 29, 1963,January 17, 1982, and January 22, 1984.
^Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.
^Brugger, Robert J. (1988).Maryland: A Middle Temperament, 1634–1980. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. p. 4.ISBN978-0-8018-3399-1.
^abAkerson, Louise A. (1988).American Indians in the Baltimore area. Baltimore, Maryland: Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology (Md.). p. 15.OCLC18473413.
^As depicted on a map of the Piscataway lands in Kenneth Bryson,Images of America: Accokeek (Arcadia Publishing, 2013) pp. 10–11, derived from Alice and Henry Ferguson,The Piscataway Indians of Southern Maryland (Alice Ferguson Foundation, 1960) pp. 8 (map) and 11: "By the beginning of Maryland settlement, pressure from theSusquehannocks had reduced...the Piscataway 'empire'...to a belt bordering the Potomac south of the falls and extending up the principal tributaries. Roughly, the 'empire' covered the southern half of present Prince Georges County and all, or nearly all, of Charles County."
^Laura Rich.Maryland History in Prints 1743–1900. p. 45.
^"The Great Strike".Catskill Archive. Timothy J. Mallery.Archived from the original on September 29, 2008. RetrievedOctober 26, 2008.
^"Baltimore, Maryland—Government".Maryland Manual On-Line: A Guide to Maryland Government. Maryland State Archives. October 23, 2008.Archived from the original on September 19, 2008. RetrievedOctober 27, 2008.
^William Harvey Hunter, "Baltimore Architecture in History"; in Dorsey & Dilts (1997), p. 7. "Both begun in 1815, the Battle Monument and the Washington Monument gave Baltimore its most famous sobriquet. In 1827, when bremoth of them were nearly finished, President John Quincy Adams at a big public dinner in Baltimore gave as his toast, 'Baltimore, the monumental city.' It was more than an idle comment: no other large city in America had even one substantial monument to show."
^Woods, Robert Archey; Kennedy, Albert Joseph (1911).Handbook of Settlements (Public domain ed.). Charities Publication Committee. pp. 100–01. RetrievedApril 27, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^Police ChiefDonald Pomerleau said, "We're in a semi-riot mode, similar to the 1968 riots." See:"Cops storm jail rebels; Baltimore in semi-riot state".Chicago Tribune. UPI. July 14, 1974.ProQuest171096090.
^Paul K. Williams (September 23, 2009)."The Story of Formstone".Welcome to Baltimore, Hon!. Archived fromthe original on November 30, 2010. RetrievedMarch 21, 2011.
^abcde"Station: MD SCI CTR Baltimore, MD".U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived fromthe original on May 12, 2023. RetrievedMay 24, 2021.
^"Station: Baltimore Wash INTL AP, MD".U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived fromthe original on May 12, 2023. RetrievedMay 24, 2021.
^Smith, Van (October 19, 2011)."Census shows striking growth in Baltimore homelessness Population swells nearly 20 percent in two years; ranks of homeless young people increase 50 percent".CityPaper. Archived fromthe original on March 6, 2012. RetrievedAugust 9, 2012.The biennial homeless censuses, which are required under federal law and are conducted on a single day—this year, Jan. 25—have trended upward since the first one in 2003 counted 2,681 homeless people in Baltimore, compared to 4,088 this year, according to the report by Morgan State's School of Architecture and Planning. Called a "point-in-time" survey, the census effort looks for homeless people living on the streets and those checking into shelters and hospital emergency rooms and receiving other homeless services. The count of Baltimore's young homeless people, which is evaluated separately by the Center for Adolescent Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is undertaken over a period of weeks instead of one day, has risen 135 percent since 2007, from 272 to 640. Rather than canvassing the streets for homeless youngsters, the effort relies on data provided by cooperating service providers, including the city public-schools system.
^abLabov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2005).The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change. Mouton de Gruyter.ISBN978-3-11-020683-8.
^Schudel, Matt (July 27, 2004)."Morgan State Choir Director Nathan M. Carter Dies at 68".The Washington Post. RetrievedJanuary 22, 2016.led the Morgan State University Choir in performances all over the world while building it into one of the premier vocal groups in the nation
^James, Michael (November 11, 1994)."46 slayings in 41 days push homicide rate up".The Baltimore Sun.Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. RetrievedDecember 3, 2015.1993, the city's most murderous year ever with 353 killings
Brooks, Neal A. & Eric G. Rockel (1979).A History of Baltimore County. Towson, Maryland: Friends of the Towson Library.
Crenson, Matthew A. (2017).Baltimore: A Political History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dorsey, John, & James D. Dilts (1997).A Guide to Baltimore Architecture. Third Edition. Centreville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers. (First edition published in 1973.)ISBN0-87033-477-8.
Hall, Clayton Coleman (1912).Baltimore: Its History and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company.Vol. 1.
Orser, Edward W. (1994).Blockbusting in Baltimore: the Edmonston Village Story. University Press of Kentucky.
Townsend, Camilla (2000).Tales of Two Cities: Race and Economic Culture in Early Republican North and South America: Guyaquil, Ecuador, and Baltimore, Maryland. University of Texas Press.ISBN0-292-78167-9.
Holli, Melvin G., and Jones, Peter d'A., eds.Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1981) short scholarly biographies each of the city's mayors 1820 to 1980.online; see index at pp. 406–411 for list.
Core cities are metropolitan core cities of at least a million people. The other areas are urban areas of cities that have an urban area of 150,000+ or of a metropolitan area of at least 250,000+. Satellite cities are in italics.
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