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Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was designated an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and today is the most populous independent city in the United States. As of 2021, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,838,327, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about north northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the third-largest CSA in the nation, with a 2021 estimated population of 9,946,526. Prior to
European colonization The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the modern sense be ...
, the Baltimore region was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock Native Americans, who were primarily settled further northwest than where the city was later built. Colonists from the Province of Maryland established the Port of Baltimore in 1706 to support the tobacco trade with Europe, and established the Town of Baltimore in 1729. The first printing press and newspapers were introduced to Baltimore by Nicholas Hasselbach and William Goddard respectively, in the mid-18th century. The Battle of Baltimore was a pivotal engagement during the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...
, culminating in the failed British bombardment of
Fort McHenry Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attac ...
, during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that would become " The Star-Spangled Banner", which was eventually designated as the American national anthem in 1931. During the Pratt Street Riot of 1861, the city was the site of some of the earliest violence associated with the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the oldest railroad in the United States, was built in 1830 and cemented Baltimore's status as a major transportation hub, giving producers in the Midwest and Appalachia access to the city's port. Baltimore's Inner Harbor was once the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. In addition, Baltimore was a major manufacturing center. After a decline in major manufacturing, heavy industry, and restructuring of the rail industry, Baltimore has shifted to a service-oriented economy. Johns Hopkins Hospital and
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
are the city's top two employers. Baltimore and its surrounding region are home to the headquarters of a number of major organizations and government agencies, including the NAACP, ABET, the National Federation of the Blind, Catholic Relief Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, World Relief, the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer ...
, and the Social Security Administration. Baltimore is also home to the Baltimore Orioles of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
and the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
. Many of Baltimore's neighborhoods have rich histories. The city is home to some of the earliest
National Register Historic District The U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) classifies its listings by various types of properties. Listed properties generally fall into one of five categories, though there are special considerations for other types of properties whi ...
s in the nation, including
Fell's Point Fell's Point is a historic waterfront neighborhood in southeastern Baltimore, Maryland. It was established around 1763 along the north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. The area has many antique, music, ...
, Federal Hill, and Mount Vernon. These were added to the National Register between 1969 and 1971, soon after historic preservation legislation was passed. Baltimore has more public statues and monuments per capita than any other city in the country. Nearly one third of the city's buildings (over 65,000) are designated as historic in the National Register, which is more than any other U.S. city. Baltimore has 66
National Register Historic District The U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) classifies its listings by various types of properties. Listed properties generally fall into one of five categories, though there are special considerations for other types of properties whi ...
s and 33 local historic districts. The historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives.


History


Native American settlement

The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the
10th millennium BC The 10th millennium BC spanned the years 10,000 BC to 9001 BC (c. 12 ka to c. 11 ka). It marks the beginning of the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic via the interim Mesolithic ( Northern Europe and Western Europe) and Ep ...
, when Paleo-Indians first settled in the region. One Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. In December 2021, several Woodland period Native American artifacts were found in
Herring Run Park The Herring Run is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Back River located in Baltimore, Maryland. Geography The watershed has its headw ...
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. During the Late Woodland period, the archaeological culture known as the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore south to the Rappahannock River in present-day
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
. 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 the Susquehannock living in the lower Susquehanna River valley. This Iroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region" and south into Virginia. Pressured by the Susquehannock, the
Piscataway tribe The Piscataway or Piscatawa , are Native Americans. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a dialect of Nanticoke. One of their neighboring tribes, with whom they merged after a massive decline of population following two centuries of interaction ...
, an Algonquian-speaking people, stayed well south of the Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of the Potomac River in what are now Charles and southern Prince George's counties in the coastal areas south of the
Fall Line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is typically prominent where rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the coa ...
.


Etymology

The city is named after The 2nd Baron Baltimore Cecil Calvert, an Anglo-Irish member of the Irish House of Lords and founding proprietor of the Province of Maryland. Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford which the Calvert family, Barons Baltimore, owned in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name ''Baile an Tí Mhóir'', meaning "town of the big house".


Colonial period

European colonization The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the modern sense be ...
of Maryland began in earnest with the arrival of the merchant ship '' The Ark'' carrying 140 colonists at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River on March 25, 1634. Europeans then began to settle the area further north, in what is now
Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City ...
.Brooks & Rockel (1979), pp. 1–3. 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. The original
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...
, known today as Old Baltimore, was located on Bush River within the present-day Aberdeen Proving Ground. The colonists engaged in sporadic warfare with the Susquehannock, whose numbers dwindled primarily from new infectious diseases, such as smallpox, endemic among the Europeans. In 1661 David Jones claimed the area known today as Jonestown on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. The colonial General Assembly of Maryland created the Port of Baltimore at old Whetstone Point (now Locust Point) in 1706 for the tobacco trade. The Town of Baltimore, on the west side of the Jones Falls, was founded and laid out on July 30, 1729. By 1752 the town had just 27 homes, including a church and two taverns. Jonestown and Fells Point had been settled to the east. The three settlements, covering , became a commercial hub, and in 1768 were designated as the county seat. The first printing press was introduced to the city in 1765 by Nicholas Hasselbach, whose equipment was later used in the printing of Baltimore's first newspapers, ''The Maryland Journal'' and ''The Baltimore Advertiser'', first published by William Goddard in 1773. Wroth, 1938, p. 41 Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco for sugar-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. 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 its public market system in 1763. Lexington Market, founded in 1782, is known as one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the United States today. Lexington Market was also a center of slave trading. Enslaved Black people were sold at numerous sites through the downtown area, with sales advertised in ''The Baltimore Sun''. Both tobacco and sugar cane were labor-intensive crops. In 1774, Baltimore established the first post office system in what became the United States, and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation (Baltimore Water Company, 1792). Baltimore played a key part in the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. City leaders such as
Jonathan Plowman Jr. Jonathan Plowman Jr. (1717–1795) was a spy and a privateer during the American Revolutionary War. His spying activities were as part of a group of Revolutionaries who reported on British troop movements. After the war broke out and trade wit ...
led many residents to resist British taxes, and merchants signed agreements refusing to trade with Britain. The Second Continental Congress met in the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777, effectively making the city the capital of the United States during this period.


Post-revolutionary period

The towns of Baltimore, Jonestown, and Fells Point were incorporated as the City of Baltimore in 1796–1797. The city remained a part of surrounding
Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City ...
and continued to serve as its county seat from 1768 to 1851, after which it became an independent city. The Battle of Baltimore against the British in 1814 inspired the U.S. national anthem, " The Star-Spangled Banner", and the construction of the Battle 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 President John 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." Baltimore pioneered the use of gas lighting in 1816, and its population grew rapidly in the following decades, with concomitant development of culture and infrastructure. The construction of the federally funded National Road (which later became part of
U.S. Route 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...
) and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in the Midwest. By 1820 its population had reached 60,000, and its economy had shifted from its base in tobacco plantations to
sawmilling A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
,
shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to bef ...
, and textile production. These industries benefited from war but successfully shifted into infrastructure development during peacetime. Baltimore had one of the worst riots of the antebellum South in 1835, when bad investments led to the Baltimore bank riot. It was these riots that led to the city being
nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
d "Mobtown". Soon after the city created the world's first dental college, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, in 1840, and shared in the world's first telegraph line, between Baltimore and Washington, DC, in 1844.


Civil War through the 19th century

Maryland, a slave state with limited popular support for secession, especially in the three counties of Southern Maryland, remained part of the Union during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
, 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. The Union's capital, Washington, D.C., then in the state of Maryland, was well-situated to impede Baltimore and Maryland's communication or commerce with the Confederacy. Baltimore saw the first casualties of the war on April 19, 1861, when Union soldiers en route from the President Street Station to Camden Yards clashed with a secessionist mob in the
Pratt Street riot The Baltimore riot of 1861 (also called the "Pratt Street Riots" and the "Pratt Street Massacre") was a civil conflict on Friday, April 19, 1861, on Pratt Street, in Baltimore, Maryland. It occurred between antiwar "Copperhead" Democrats (the ...
. In the midst of the Long Depression that followed the Panic of 1873, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad company attempted to lower its workers' wages, leading to strikes and riots in the city and
beyond Beyond may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Beyond'' (1921 film), an American silent film * ''Beyond'' (2000 film), a Danish film directed by Åke Sandgren, OT: ''Dykkerne'' * ''Beyond'' (2010 film), a Swedish film directed ...
. Strikers clashed with the National Guard, leaving 10 dead and 25 wounded. The beginnings of settlement movement work in Baltimore were made early in 1893, when Rev. Dr. Edward A. Lawrence took up lodgings with his friend Frank Thompson, in one of the Winans tenements, the Lawrence House being established shortly thereafter at 814-816 West Lombard Street.


20th century through 1968

On February 7, 1904, the Great 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. As the city rebuilt during the next two years, lessons learned from the fire led to improvements in firefighting equipment standards. Baltimore lawyer Milton Dashiell advocated for an ordinance to bar African-Americans from moving into the Eutaw 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 Democratic Mayor J. Barry Mahool's signature. 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 in '' Buchanan v. Warley'' (1917). The city grew in area by annexing new suburbs from the surrounding counties through 1918, when the city acquired portions of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County. 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. Streetcars enabled the development of distant neighborhoods areas such as Edmonson Village whose residents could easily commute to work downtown. Driven by migration from the deep South and by white suburbanization, the relative size of the city's
black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
population grew from 23.8% in 1950 to 46.4% in 1970. Encouraged by real estate
blockbusting Blockbusting was a business practice in the United States in which real estate agents and building developers convinced white residents in a particular area to sell their property at below-market prices. This was achieved by fearmongering the ho ...
techniques, recently settled white areas rapidly became all-black neighborhoods, in a rapid process which was nearly total by 1970.


1968 and after

The
Baltimore riot of 1968 The Baltimore riot of 1968 was a period of civil unrest that lasted from April 6 to April 14, 1968, in Baltimore. The uprising included crowds filling the streets, burning and looting local businesses, and confronting the police and national gua ...
, coinciding with uprisings in other cities, followed the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at ...
on April 4, 1968. Public order was not restored until April 12, 1968. The Baltimore uprising cost the city an estimated $10 million (US$ million in ). A total of 12,000 Maryland National Guard and federal troops were ordered into the city. The city experienced challenges again in 1974 when teachers, municipal workers, and police officers conducted strikes. Following the
death of Freddie Gray On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., a 25-year-old African American, was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department over his legal possession of a knife. While being transported in a police van, Gray sustained injuries and was taken to ...
in April 2015, the city experienced major protests and international media attention, as well as a clash between local youth and police that resulted in a state of emergency declaration and a curfew. Baltimore has had a high homicide rate for several decades, peaking in 1993, and again in 2015. These deaths have taken an especially severe toll within the black community.


Development and promotion

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. Efforts to redevelop the area started with the construction of the Maryland Science Center, which opened in 1976, the Baltimore World Trade Center (1977), and the Baltimore Convention Center (1979).
Harborplace Harborplace is a shopping complex on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. Description The property is composed of 2 two-story pavilions: the Pratt Street Pavilion and the Light Street Pavilion. Each of these buildings contains many stores an ...
, an urban retail and restaurant complex, opened on the waterfront in 1980, followed by the National Aquarium, Maryland's largest tourist destination, and the
Baltimore Museum of Industry Baltimore Museum of Industry is a museum in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Located in an old cannery, the museum has exhibits on various types of manufacturing and industry from the early 20th century. There are several hands-on sections with ...
in 1981. In 1995, the city opened the American Visionary Art Museum on Federal Hill. During the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the United States,
Baltimore City Health Department The Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) is the public health agency of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. BCHD convenes and collaborates with other city agencies, health care providers, community organizations and funders to "empower Baltimorea ...
official Robert Mehl persuaded the city's mayor to form a committee to address food problems; the Baltimore-based charity Moveable Feast grew out of this initiative in 1990. By 2010, the organization's region of service had expanded from merely Baltimore to include all of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In 1992, the Baltimore Orioles
baseball team Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
moved from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, located downtown near the harbor. Pope John Paul II held an open-air mass at Camden Yards during his papal visit to the United States in October 1995. Three years later the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
football team moved into M&T Bank Stadium next to Camden Yards. Baltimore has seen the reopening of the
Hippodrome Theatre The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater in New York City from 1905 to 1939, located on Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Sixth Avenue between 43rd Street (Manhattan), West 43rd and 44th Street (Manhattan), West 44th St ...
in 2004, the opening of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in 2005, and the establishment of the
National Slavic Museum The National Slavic Museum in Fell's Point, Baltimore is a museum dedicated to the documentation of the Polish and Slavic heritage of Baltimore, including Baltimore's Belarusian, Bulgarian, Carpatho-Rusyn, Croatian, Czech Czech may refer to: * ...
in 2012. On April 12, 2012, Johns Hopkins held a dedication ceremony to mark the completion of one of the United States' largest medical complexes – the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore – which features the Sheikh Zayed Cardiovascular and Critical Care Tower and The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center. The event, held at the entrance to the $1.1 billion 1.6 million-square-foot-facility, honored the many donors including Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, first president of the
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...
, and Michael Bloomberg. On September 19, 2016, the Baltimore City Council approved a $660 million bond deal for the $5.5 billion
Port Covington Port Covington is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Previously, Port Covington was a railroad terminal built by the Western Maryland Railway in 1904 on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. The terminal facilities included coal, grain an ...
redevelopment project championed by Under Armour founder
Kevin Plank Kevin Audette Plank (born August 13, 1972) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. Plank is the founder and executive chairman of Under Armour, a manufacturer of sportswear, footwear and accessories, based in Baltimore, Maryland ...
and his real estate company Sagamore Development. Port Covington surpassed the Harbor Point development as the largest
tax-increment financing Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects in many countries, including the United States. The original intent of a TIF program is ...
deal in Baltimore's history and among the largest urban redevelopment projects in the country. 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. Goldman Sachs invested $233 million into the redevelopment project.


Geography

Baltimore is in north-central Maryland on the Patapsco River close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The city is also located on the
fall line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is typically prominent where rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the coa ...
between the Piedmont Plateau and the Atlantic coastal plain, which divides Baltimore into "lower city" and "upper city". The city's elevation ranges from sea level at the harbor to in the northwest corner near Pimlico. According to the 2010 Census, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The total area is 12.1 percent water. Baltimore is almost surrounded by Baltimore County, but is politically independent of it. It is bordered by Anne Arundel County to the south.


Cityscape


Architecture

Baltimore exhibits examples from each period of architecture over more than two centuries, and work from architects such as
Benjamin Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, dra ...
,
George A. Frederick George Aloysius Frederick (December 16, 1842 – August 17, 1924) was a German-American architect with a practice in Baltimore, Maryland, where his most prominent commission was the Baltimore City Hall (1867–1875), awarded him when he was o ...
, John Russell Pope, Mies van der Rohe and I. M. Pei. The city is rich in architecturally significant buildings in a variety of styles. The Baltimore Basilica (1806–1821) is a neoclassical design by Benjamin Latrobe, and one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in the United States. In 1813 Robert Cary Long Sr. built for Rembrandt 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 the
Peale Museum The Peale, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is Baltimore's Community Museum. Its mission is to evolve the role of museums in society by providing local creators and storytellers with the space and support the need to realize a complete and access ...
. The McKim Free School was founded and endowed by John McKim. However, the building was erected by his son Isaac in 1822 after a design by William Howard and William Small. It reflects the popular interest in
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
when the nation was securing its independence and a scholarly interest in recently published drawings of Athenian antiquities. The Phoenix Shot Tower (1828), at 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. 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 financier George Brown, has stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and has been called "one of the most significant buildings in this city, a treasure of art and architecture" by '' Baltimore'' magazine. The 1845
Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
-style Lloyd Street Synagogue is one of the
oldest synagogues in the United States Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...
. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, designed by Lt. Col. John S. Billings in 1876, was a considerable achievement for its day in functional arrangement and fireproofing. I.M. Pei's World Trade Center (1977) is the tallest equilateral pentagonal building in the world at tall. The
Harbor East Inner Harbor East, now more recently referred to more commonly as simply as Harbor East, is a relatively new mixed-use development project in Baltimore, Maryland, United States along the northern shoreline of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco ...
area has seen the addition of two new towers which have completed construction: a 24-floor tower that is the new world headquarters of
Legg Mason Legg Mason was an American investment management and asset management firm headquartered in Baltimore, founded in 1899 and acquired by Franklin Templeton Investments as of July 2020. As of December 31, 2019, the company had $730.8 billion in as ...
, and a 21-floor Four Seasons Hotel complex. The streets of Baltimore are organized in a grid and spoke pattern, lined with tens of thousands of brick and
formstone Formstone is a type of stucco commonly applied to brick rowhouses in many East Coast urban areas in the United States, although it is most strongly associated with Baltimore. As a form of simulated masonry, Formstone is commonly colored and shape ...
-faced
rowhouses In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...
. In ''The Baltimore Rowhouse'', Mary Ellen Hayward and
Charles Belfoure Charles Belfoure (born 19 February 1954) is an American writer, architect and historian specializing in historic preservation, author of several histories and fiction works, including ''The New York Times'' best-selling novel '' The Paris Archi ...
considered the rowhouse as the architectural form defining Baltimore as "perhaps no other American city". 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. Formstone facings,once a common feature on Baltimore rowhouses, were an addition 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''. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a Major League Baseball park, opened in 1992, which was built as a retro style baseball park. Camden Yards, along with the National Aquarium, have helped revive the Inner Harbor from what once was an industrial district full of dilapidated warehouses into a bustling commercial district full of bars, restaurants and retail establishments. After an international competition, the
University of Baltimore School of Law The University of Baltimore School of Law, or the UB School of Law, is one of the four colleges that make up the University of Baltimore, which is part of the University System of Maryland. The UBalt School of Law is one of only two law schools i ...
awarded the German firm
Behnisch Architekten Behnisch Architekten is an architectural practice based in Stuttgart, Germany, with branches in Munich, Germany; Boston, Massachusetts and Los Angeles, California. The office was founded in 1989 by Stefan Behnisch, son of the well-known German ...
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. Baltimore's newly rehabilitated Everyman Theatre was honored by the Baltimore 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.


Tallest buildings


Neighborhoods

Baltimore is officially divided into nine geographical regions: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, and Central, with each district patrolled by a respective
Baltimore Police Department The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering of land and of waterway ...
. Interstate 83 and Charles Street down to Hanover Street and Ritchie Highway serve as the east–west dividing line and Eastern Avenue to Route 40 as the north–south dividing line; however, Baltimore Street is north–south dividing line for the U.S. Postal Service.


=Central Baltimore

= Central Baltimore, originally called the Middle District, stretches north of the Inner Harbor up to the edge of Druid Hill Park. Downtown Baltimore has mainly served as a commercial district with limited residential opportunities; however, between 2000 and 2010, the downtown population grew 130 percent as old commercial properties have been replaced by residential property. Still the city's main commercial area and business district, it includes Baltimore's sports complexes: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, and the
Royal Farms Arena CFG Bank Arena (originally the Baltimore Civic Center and formerly Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore Arena and 1st Mariner Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Conventio ...
; and the shops and attractions in the Inner Harbor:
Harborplace Harborplace is a shopping complex on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. Description The property is composed of 2 two-story pavilions: the Pratt Street Pavilion and the Light Street Pavilion. Each of these buildings contains many stores an ...
, the Baltimore Convention Center, the National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center,
Pier Six Pavilion Pier Six Pavilion is a music venue located in Baltimore, Maryland. The waterfront venue is located on Pier Six of the Inner Harbor and opened in 1981. History The venue opened in 1981 as a temporary structure known as the "Harbor Lights Concert ...
, and
Power Plant Live Power Plant Live! is a collection of bars, restaurants and other businesses in the Inner Harbor section of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed by The Cordish Companies and opened in phases during 2001, 2002, and 2003. The entertainmen ...
. The University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Maryland Medical Center, and Lexington Market are also in the central district, as well as the Hippodrome and many nightclubs, bars, restaurants, shopping centers and various other attractions. The northern portion of Central Baltimore, between downtown and the Druid Hill Park, is home to many of the city's cultural opportunities. Maryland Institute College of Art, the Peabody Institute (music conservatory),
George Peabody Library The George Peabody Library is a library connected to the Johns Hopkins University, focused on research into the 19th century. It was formerly the Library of the Peabody Institute of music in the City of Baltimore, and is located on the Peabody c ...
, Enoch Pratt Free Library – Central Library, the Lyric Opera House, the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the Walters Art Museum, the
Maryland Center for History and Culture The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), . founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and inte ...
and its Enoch Pratt Mansion, and several galleries are located in this region.


=North Baltimore

= Several historic and notable neighborhoods are in this district: Govans (1755), Roland Park (1891), Guilford (1913), Homeland (1924), Hampden, Woodberry, Old Goucher (the original campus of Goucher College), and Jones Falls. Along the York Road corridor going north are the large neighborhoods of Charles Village, Waverly, and
Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934 ...
. The Station North Arts and Entertainment District is also located in North Baltimore.


=South Baltimore

= South Baltimore, a mixed industrial and residential area, consists of the "Old South Baltimore" peninsula below the Inner Harbor and east of the old
B&O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
's Camden line tracks and Russell Street downtown. It is a culturally, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse waterfront area with neighborhoods such as Locust Point and Riverside around a large park of the same name. Just south of the Inner Harbor, the historic Federal Hill neighborhood, is home to many working professionals, pubs and restaurants. At the end of the peninsula is historic
Fort McHenry Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attac ...
, 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. Across the Hanover Street Bridge are residential areas such as Cherry Hill.


=Northeast Baltimore

= Northeast is primarily a residential neighborhood, home to Morgan State University, bounded by the city line of 1919 on its northern and eastern boundaries,
Sinclair Lane This is a list of notable streets in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. A B C D E F G H Heath St. Route 64. (MTA Maryland) K L M N O P R Ramsay st S U W Y Numbered streets In Balt ...
, Erdman Avenue, and Pulaski Highway to the south and The Alameda on to the west. Also in this wedge of the city on 33rd Street is Baltimore City College high school, third oldest active public secondary school in the United States, founded downtown in 1839. Across
Loch Raven Boulevard Maryland Route 542 (MD 542) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Loch Raven Boulevard, the state highway runs from MD 147 in Baltimore north to Interstate 695 (I-695) and Cromwell Bridge Road near ...
is the former site of the old Memorial Stadium home of the Baltimore Colts, Baltimore Orioles, and
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
, now replaced by a
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
athletic and housing complex.
Lake Montebello Lake Montebello is a reservoir located near Mayfield and Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello in Northeast Baltimore City in central Maryland. The lake was excavated and constructed in 1881, and nearby Montebello Filtration Plants 1 and 2 were compl ...
is in Northeast Baltimore.


=East Baltimore

= Located below
Sinclair Lane This is a list of notable streets in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. A B C D E F G H Heath St. Route 64. (MTA Maryland) K L M N O P R Ramsay st S U W Y Numbered streets In Balt ...
and Erdman Avenue, above Orleans Street, East Baltimore is mainly made up of residential neighborhoods. This section of East Baltimore is home to Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins Children's Center on Broadway. Notable neighborhoods include:
Armistead Gardens Armistead Gardens is a neighborhood in the Northeast District of Baltimore. It is located north of Pulaski Highway and east of Erdman Avenue, between Herring Run Park (northeast) and the East District neighborhood of Orangeville (southwest). Ar ...
,
Broadway East Broadway East is a neighborhood in the East District of Baltimore. Its boundaries are the south side of North Avenue, the west side of Milton Street, the east side of Broadway, and the north side of Biddle Street. The neighborhood lies east of ...
, Barclay,
Ellwood Park Ellwood Park is a neighborhood in the eastern part of Baltimore, Maryland. It is named for a small public park with a playground between Jefferson and Orleans Streets. The neighborhood extends from Linwood Avenue and Haven Street, between Monumen ...
, Greenmount, and
McElderry Park McElderry Park is a neighborhood in the northern part of the southeastern district of the City of Baltimore. Its boundaries are marked by East Fayette Street, East Monument Street, Linwood Avenue, and Patterson Park Avenue. South of McElderry P ...
. This area was the on-site film location for '' Homicide: Life on the Street'', '' The Corner'' and '' The Wire''.


=Southeast Baltimore

= Southeast Baltimore, located below Fayette Street, bordering the Inner Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River to the west, the city line of 1919 on its eastern boundaries and the Patapsco River to the south, is a mixed industrial and residential area. Patterson Park, the "Best Backyard in Baltimore", as well as the Highlandtown Arts District, and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center are located in Southeast Baltimore. The Shops at Canton Crossing opened in 2013. The Canton neighborhood, is located along Baltimore's prime waterfront. Other historic neighborhoods include: Fells Point, Patterson Park, Butchers Hill,
Highlandtown Highlandtown is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Description and history The area currently known as Highlandtown was established in 1866 when the area known as "Snake Hill" was established as a village outside the Baltimor ...
,
Greektown Greektown is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Greeks or people of Greek ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. History The oldest Greek dominated neighborhood outside of Greece were probably the Fener in Istanb ...
,
Harbor East Inner Harbor East, now more recently referred to more commonly as simply as Harbor East, is a relatively new mixed-use development project in Baltimore, Maryland, United States along the northern shoreline of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco ...
, Little Italy, and
Upper Fell's Point Upper Fells Point, also known as "Fells Prospect," is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Located north of Fells Point, originally the neighborhood was home to Baltimore's dock workers. By the 1880s canneries and factories prov ...
.


=Northwest Baltimore

= Northwestern is bounded by the county line to the north and west, Gwynns Falls Parkway on the south and Pimlico Road on the east, is home to
Pimlico Race Course Pimlico Race Course is a thoroughbred horse racetrack in Baltimore, Maryland, most famous for hosting the Preakness Stakes. Its name is derived from the 1660s when English settlers named the area where the facility currently stands in honor of Ol ...
, Sinai Hospital, and the headquarters of the NAACP. Its neighborhoods are mostly residential and are dissected by Northern Parkway. The area has been the center of Baltimore's Jewish community since after World War II. Notable neighborhoods include: Pimlico,
Mount Washington Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934 ...
, and
Cheswolde Cheswolde is residential community in northwest Baltimore, Maryland. It is located along the Western Run. The main roads running through the area are Greenspring Avenue, Cross Country Boulevard, and Taney Road. The history of Cheswolde dates back t ...
, and
Park Heights Park Heights is an area of Baltimore City, Maryland, that lies approximately 10 miles northwest of downtown Baltimore and within two miles of the Baltimore County line. A 1,500-acre community, Park Heights comprises 12 smaller neighborhoods tha ...
.


=West Baltimore

= West Baltimore is west of downtown and the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and is bounded by Gwynns Falls Parkway, Fremont Avenue, and West Baltimore Street. The
Old West Baltimore Historic District Old West Baltimore Historic District is a national historic district in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is primarily a row house neighborhood of approximately 175 city blocks directly northwest of downtown Baltimore. The district includes ...
includes the neighborhoods of Harlem Park,
Sandtown-Winchester Sandtown-Winchester is a neighborhood in West Baltimore, Maryland. Known locally as Sandtown, the community's name was derived from the trails of sand that dropped from wagons leaving town after filling up at the local sand and gravel quarry back ...
, Druid Heights, Madison Park, and
Upton Upton may refer to: Places United Kingdom England * Upton, Slough, Berkshire (in Buckinghamshire until 1974) * Upton, Buckinghamshire, a hamlet near Aylesbury * Upton, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough * Upton, Huntingdonshire, a location in Cambridg ...
. Originally a predominantly German neighborhood, by the last half of the 19th century, Old West Baltimore was home to a substantial section of the city's black population. It became the largest neighborhood for the city's black community and its cultural, political, and economic center. Coppin State University,
Mondawmin Mall Mondawmin Mall is a three-level shopping mall in West Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The mall was a development of the Mondawmin Corporation, a firm set up in 1952 by James Rouse and Hunter Moss under the Moss-Rouse Company. When it first ope ...
, and Edmondson Village are located in this district. The area's crime problems have provided subject material for television series, such as '' The Wire''. Local organizations, such as the Sandtown Habitat for Humanity and the Upton Planning Committee, have been steadily transforming parts of formerly blighted areas of West Baltimore into clean, safe communities.


=Southwest Baltimore

= Southwest Baltimore is bound by the Baltimore County line to the west, West Baltimore Street to the north, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Russell Street/Baltimore-Washington Parkway (Maryland Route 295) to the east. Notable neighborhoods in Southwest Baltimore include: Pigtown, Carrollton Ridge,
Ridgely's Delight Ridgely's Delight is an historic residential neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Its borders are formed by Russell and Greene Streets to the east, West Pratt Street to the north, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from the wes ...
, Leakin Park,
Violetville Violetville (also known as the Village of Violetville) is a neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore, Maryland and Baltimore County. The community is characterized by its "well-kept 1950s and 60s era rowhouses and older farmhouses that date back to the ...
, Lakeland, and Morrell Park. St. Agnes Hospital on Wilkens and Caton avenues is located in this district with the neighboring Cardinal Gibbons High School, which is the former site of Babe Ruth's alma mater, St. Mary's Industrial School. Also through this segment of Baltimore ran the beginnings of the historic National Road, which was constructed beginning in 1806 along
Old Frederick Road Maryland Route 99 (MD 99) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Old Frederick Road, the state highway runs from MD 32 near West Friendship east to U.S. Route 29 (US 29) in Ellicott City. MD 99 parallels the north side o ...
and continuing into the county on Frederick Road into Ellicott City, Maryland. Other sides in this district are: Carroll Park, one of the city's largest parks, the colonial Mount Clare Mansion, and Washington Boulevard, which dates to pre-Revolutionary War days as the prime route out of the city to Alexandria, Virginia, and Georgetown on the Potomac River. File:Parkside1.jpg, Belair-Edison File:Woodberry07.JPG, Woodberry File:Res Hill HD Baltimore.JPG, Reservoir Hill File:Station North Arts District Baltimore Chas St.jpg, Station North File:Fells Point A.JPG, Fells Point File:GoodwoodGardens.jpg, Roland Park


Adjacent communities

The City of Baltimore is bordered by the following communities, all unincorporated
census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...
s.


Climate

Baltimore has a humid subtropical climate (''Cfa'') in the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...
, with long, hot summers, cool winters, and a summer peak to annual precipitation. Baltimore is part of USDA plant hardiness zones 7b and 8a. Summers are normally warm, with occasional late day thunderstorms. July, the warmest month, has a mean temperature of . Winters range from chilly to mild but vary, with sporadic snowfall: January has a daily average of , though temperatures reach quite often, and can occasionally drop below when Arctic air masses affect the area. 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 , and 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. 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 coastal storm surge areas. The average seasonal snowfall is , but it varies greatly depending on the winter, with some seasons seeing only trace accumulations of snow, while others see several major Nor'easters. Owing to lessened urban heat island (UHI) as compared to the city 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 of snow per winter. It is by no means uncommon for the rain-snow line to set up in the metro area. 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 gets dammed against the mountains to the west and the result is freezing rain or sleet. Like all of Maryland, Baltimore is at risk for increased impacts of climate change. Historically, flooding has ruined houses and almost killed people, especially in lower income majority black neighborhoods, and caused additional sewage backups, given the existing disrepair of Baltimore's water system. Extreme temperatures range from on February 9, 1934, and February 10, 1899, up to on July 22, 2011. On average, temperatures of or more occur on three days annually, or more on 43 days, and there are nine days where the high fails to reach the freezing mark.


Demographics


Population

In 2011, then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said her main goal 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. Baltimore is sometimes identified as a sanctuary city. In 2019, then-Mayor Jack Young said that Baltimore will not assist ICE agents with immigration raids. Baltimore City's population has declined overall from 2010 to 2020 by about 34,830 people, representing a 5.6% drop. The official US census places the city's population at 585,708 for 2020. The year between 2018 and 2019 had the largest year-to-year population loss, and in 2020 Baltimore lost more population than any other major city in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
.
Gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ...
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. Most, 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. In some neighborhoods in East Baltimore, the Hispanic population has increased along with home values and income, while both the non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black populations have declined, a trend which is not seen in many other American cities. After
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Baltimore was the second city in the United States to reach a population of 100,000. From the 1820 through 1850 U.S. censuses, Baltimore was the second most-populous city, before being surpassed by Philadelphia in 1860. It was among the top 10 cities in population in the United States in every census up through the 1980 census, and after World War II had a population of nearly 1 million.


Characteristics

According to the , Baltimore's population is 63.7%
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
, 29.6%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
(6.9%
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, 5.8% Italian, 4% Irish, 2%
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
, 2% Polish, 0.5% Greek) 2.3% Asian (0.54% Korean, 0.46%
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
, 0.37% Chinese, 0.36% Filipino, 0.21%
Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...
, 0.16% Pakistani), and 0.4% Native American and Alaska Native. Across races, 4.2% of the population are of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin (1.63% Salvadoran, 1.21% Mexican, 0.63% Puerto Rican, 0.6% Honduran). As per the 2020 Census, 8.1% of residents between 2016 and 2020 were foreign born persons. 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. Baltimore also has a large
Caribbean American Caribbean Americans or West Indian Americans are Americans who trace their ancestry to the Caribbean. Caribbean Americans are a multi-ethnic and multi-racial group that trace their ancestry further in time mostly to Africa, as well as Asia, the ...
population, with the largest groups being Jamaicans and Trinidadians. Baltimore's Jamaican community is largely centered in the
Park Heights Park Heights is an area of Baltimore City, Maryland, that lies approximately 10 miles northwest of downtown Baltimore and within two miles of the Baltimore County line. A 1,500-acre community, Park Heights comprises 12 smaller neighborhoods tha ...
neighborhood, but generations of immigrants have also lived in Southeast Baltimore. In 2005, approximately 30,778 people (6.5%) identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. In 2012, same-sex marriage in Maryland was legalized, going into effect January 1, 2013.


Income and housing

Between 2016 and 2020, the median household was $52,164 and the median income per capita to $32,699, compared to the national averages of $64,994 and $35,384, respectively. 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. In 2009, 23.7% of the population lived below the poverty line, compared to 13.5% nationwide. According to the 2020 Census, 20% of Baltimore residents are now living poverty compared to 11.6% nationwide. Housing in Baltimore is relatively inexpensive for large, coastal cities of its size. The median sale price for homes in Baltimore in 2012 was $95,000. Despite the housing collapse, and along with the national trends, Baltimore residents still faced slowly increasing rent (up 3% in the summer of 2010). The median value of owner-occupied housing units between 2016 and 2020 was $242,499. The homeless 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.


Life expectancy

As of 2015, life expectancy in Baltimore was 74 to 75 years, compared to the U.S. average of 78 to 80. Fourteen neighborhoods had lower life expectancies than North Korea. The life expectancy in Downtown/Seton Hill was comparable to that of Yemen.


Religion

According to Pew Research Center, 25% of adults in Baltimore report affiliating with no religion. 50% of the adult population of Baltimore are Protestants. Following Protestantism, Catholicism is the second largest religious affiliation, comprising 15% percent of the population, followed by
Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...
(3%) and
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
(2%). Around 1% identify with other Christian denominations.Adults in the Baltimore metro area
''Religious Landscape Study'', Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015


Languages

, 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 as African languages, French, and Chinese are spoken by less than 1% of the population.


Crime

Crime in Baltimore, generally concentrated in areas high in poverty, has been extreme for many years. Overall reported crime has dropped by 60% from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, but homicide rates remain high and exceed the national average. 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 set in 1993—and the second-highest for U.S. cities behind St. Louis and ahead of
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. Of Baltimore's 344 homicides in 2015, 321 (93.3%) of the victims were African-American. 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 behind Dayton, Ohio. The DEA 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. 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. On August 8, 2014, Baltimore's new youth curfew 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. 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 the unrest and rioting of late April. 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, according to annual crime statistics released by the Baltimore Police Department, there were 318 murders in the city. This total marked a 7.56 percent decline in homicides from 2015. In an interview with ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', on November 2, 2017,Gately, Gary (November 2, 2017)
" Baltimore is more murderous than Chicago. Can anyone save the city from itself?"
''The Guardian''.
David Simon, himself a former police reporter for '' The Baltimore Sun'', ascribed the most recent surge in murders to the high-profile decision by Baltimore state's attorney,
Marilyn Mosby Marilyn Mosby (née James; born January 22, 1980) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the State's Attorney for Baltimore from 2015 to 2023. She is currently under federal indictment for multiple crimes. Early life Born Marilyn Jam ...
, to charge six city police officers following the
death of Freddie Gray On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., a 25-year-old African American, was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department over his legal possession of a knife. While being transported in a police van, Gray sustained injuries and was taken to ...
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." In Baltimore, "arrest numbers have plummeted from more than 40,000 in 2014, the year before Gray's death and the subsequent charges against the officers, to about 18,000 s of November 2017 This happened even as homicides soared from 211 in 2014 to 344 in 2015 – an increase of 63%." Simon's HBO miniseries We Own this City aired in April 2022 and covered many of the events surrounding the death of Freddie Gray and the work slowdown by the Baltimore Police Department during that time period.


Economy

Once a predominantly industrial town, with an economic base focused on steel processing, shipping, auto manufacturing (General Motors
Baltimore Assembly Baltimore Assembly (properly named Broening Highway General Motors Plant) was a General Motors factory in Baltimore, Maryland. The plant opened in 1935 to produce Chevrolets and closed on May 13, 2005. It was a two-level plant located in the C ...
), and transportation, the city experienced deindustrialization, which cost residents tens of thousands of low-skill, high-wage jobs. The city now relies on a low-wage service economy, which accounts for 31% of jobs in the city. Around the turn of the 20th century, Baltimore was the leading U.S. manufacturer of rye whiskey and straw hats. It also led in refining of crude oil, brought to the city by pipeline from Pennsylvania. the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated Baltimore's unemployment rate at 5.8% while one quarter of Baltimore residents (and 37% of Baltimore children) live in poverty. The 2012 closure of a major steel plant at Sparrows Point is expected to have a further impact on employment and the local economy. The Census Bureau reported in 2013 that 207,000 workers commute into Baltimore city each day. 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. ''Forbes'' ranked Baltimore fourth among America's "new tech hot spots". The city is home to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Other large companies in Baltimore include Under Armour,
BRT Laboratories BRT Laboratories, Inc. is a Baltimore, Maryland-based biotechnology company that performs DNA testing. The company has three divisions: Relationship Testing, Forensics, and Clinical Services. It is a privately held, wholly owned subsidiary of Bal ...
,
Cordish Company The Cordish Companies (previously The Cordish Company) is a U.S.-based real estate development and entertainment operating company with its headquarters on the 6th floor of the Pratt Street Power Plant in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded ...
,
Legg Mason Legg Mason was an American investment management and asset management firm headquartered in Baltimore, founded in 1899 and acquired by Franklin Templeton Investments as of July 2020. As of December 31, 2019, the company had $730.8 billion in as ...
, McCormick & Company,
T. Rowe Price T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is an American publicly owned global investment management firm that offers funds, subadvisory services, separate account management, and retirement plans and services for individuals, institutions, and financial inter ...
, and
Royal Farms Royal Farms is a privately owned chain of convenience stores headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company operates more than 200 stores throughout Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia with plans to expand ...
. A sugar refinery owned by
American Sugar Refining American Sugar Refining, Inc. is a large privately held cane sugar refining company, with a production capacity of 6.5 million tons of sugar. The company produces a full line of consumer, industrial, food service, and specialty sweetener product ...
is one of Baltimore's cultural icons. Nonprofits based in Baltimore include
Lutheran Services in America Lutheran Services in America is the national office of a network of 300 Lutheran health and human services organizations across the United States. Headquartered in Washington, DC, Lutheran Services in America amplifies the voice of its $23 billion ...
and Catholic Relief Services. Almost a quarter of the jobs in the Baltimore region were in science, technology, engineering, and math 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.


Port

The center of international commerce for the region is the World 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. The Port 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 also generated more than $300 million in taxes. It 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 500 jobs and brings in over $90 million to Maryland's economy annually. Growth at the port continues with the Maryland Port Administration plans to turn the southern tip of the former steel mill into a marine terminal, primarily for car and truck shipments, but also for anticipated new business coming to Baltimore after the completion of the Panama Canal expansion project.


Tourism

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. The Baltimore Visitor Center, which is operated by
Visit Baltimore Visit Baltimore, formerly the Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Association (BACVA), is a quasi-public organization started in 1980 by then-Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer. The agency is charged with bringing in tourists and convention ...
, is located on Light Street in the Inner Harbor. Much of the city's tourism centers around the Inner Harbor, with the National 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. The USS ''Constellation'', the last Civil War-era vessel afloat, is docked at the head of the Inner Harbor; the USS ''Torsk'', a submarine that holds the Navy's record for dives (more than 10,000); and the Coast Guard cutter ''
WHEC-37 WPG/WAGC/WHEC-37, originally called USCGC ''Taney'' (), is a United States Coast Guard High Endurance Cutter notable as the last warship floating that fought in the attack on Pearl Harbor. She was named for Roger B. Taney (1777–1864), who serve ...
'', the last surviving U.S. warship that was in
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...
during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, and which engaged Japanese Zero aircraft during the battle. Also docked is the lightship ''Chesapeake'', which for decades marked the entrance to Chesapeake Bay; and the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, the oldest surviving screw-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 the
Historic Ships in Baltimore Historic Ships in Baltimore, created as a result of the merger of the USS Constellation Museum and the Baltimore Maritime Museum, is a maritime museum located in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. The museum's collecti ...
organization. The Inner Harbor is also the home port of ''Pride of Baltimore II'', the state of Maryland's "goodwill ambassador" ship, a reconstruction of a famous Baltimore Clipper ship. Other tourist destinations include sporting venues such as Oriole Park at Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, and
Pimlico Race Course Pimlico Race Course is a thoroughbred horse racetrack in Baltimore, Maryland, most famous for hosting the Preakness Stakes. Its name is derived from the 1660s when English settlers named the area where the facility currently stands in honor of Ol ...
,
Fort McHenry Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attac ...
, the Mount Vernon, Federal Hill, and Fells Point neighborhoods, Lexington Market, Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, Horseshoe Casino, and museums such as the Walters Art Museum, the
Baltimore Museum of Industry Baltimore Museum of Industry is a museum in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Located in an old cannery, the museum has exhibits on various types of manufacturing and industry from the early 20th century. There are several hands-on sections with ...
, the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, the Maryland Science Center, and the B&O Railroad Museum. File:Baltimore Visitor Center.JPG, Baltimore Visitor Center in Inner Harbor File:Fountain@InnerHarbor Baltimore.JPG, Fountain near visitor center in Inner Harbor File:Sunset@Baltimore 1.JPG, Sunset views from Baltimore's Inner Harbor File:Sunset@Baltimore 2.JPG, File:Sunset@Baltimore 3.JPG, File:Sunset@Baltimore II.JPG File:BaltimoreNationalAquarium.JPG, Baltimore is the home of the National Aquarium, one of the world's largest.


Culture

Historically a working-class port town, Baltimore has sometimes been dubbed a "city of neighborhoods", with 72 designated historic districts 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 movie ''Sleepless in Seattle''); and Little Italy, located between the other two, where Baltimore's Italian-American community is based – and where U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi grew up. Further inland, Mount Vernon is the traditional center of cultural and artistic life of the city; it is home to a distinctive Washington Monument (Baltimore), Washington Monument, set atop a hill in a 19th-century urban square, that predates the monument in Washington, D.C. by several decades. Baltimore also has a significant History of the Germans in Baltimore, German American population, and was the second largest port of immigration to the United States, behind Ellis Island in New York and New Jersey. Between 1820 and 1989, almost 2 million who were German, History of the Poles in Baltimore, Polish, English, Irish, History of the Russians in Baltimore, Russian, History of the Lithuanians in Baltimore, Lithuanian, History of the French in Baltimore, French, History of the Ukrainians in Baltimore, Ukrainian, History of the Czechs in Baltimore, Czech, History of the Greeks in Baltimore, Greek and History of the Italians in Baltimore, Italian came to Baltimore, most between the years 1861 to 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 also was a Chinatown, Baltimore, Chinatown dating back to at least the 1880s which consisted of no more than 400 Chinese residents. A local Chinese-American association remains based there, but only one Chinese restaurant as of 2009. Baltimore has quite a history when it comes to making beer, an art that thrived in Baltimore from the 1800s to the 1950s with over 100 old breweries in the city's past. The best remaining example of that history is the old American Brewery (building), American Brewery Building on North Gay Street and the National Brewing Company building in the Brewers Hill, Baltimore, Brewer's Hill neighborhood. In the 1940s the National Brewing Company introduced the nation's first six-pack. National's two most prominent brands, were National Bohemian Beer colloquially "Natty Boh" and Colt 45 (malt liquor), Colt 45. Listed on the Pabst Brewing Company, Pabst website as a "Fun Fact", Colt 45 was named after running back Jerry Hill (American football), #45 Jerry Hill of the 1963 Indianapolis Colts#The NFL Baltimore Colts, Baltimore Colts and not the .45 Colt, .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 as Baltimore Orioles, Orioles and Baltimore Ravens, Ravens games. The Natty Boh logo appears on all cans, bottles, and packaging; and merchandise featuring him can still easily be found in shops in Maryland, including several in Fells Point. Each year the Artscape (festival), Artscape takes place in the city in the Bolton Hill, Baltimore, Bolton Hill neighborhood, close to the Maryland Institute College of Art. Artscape styles itself as the "largest free arts festival in America". Each May, the Maryland Film Festival takes place in Baltimore, using all five screens of the historic Charles 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 as '' The Wire.'' ''House of Cards (U.S. TV series), House of Cards'' and ''Veep'' are set in Washington, D.C. but filmed in Baltimore. Baltimore has cultural museums in many areas of study. Baltimore Museum of Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Walters Art Museum are internationally renowned for its collection of art. The Baltimore Museum of Art has the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world. The American Visionary Art Museum has been designated by United States Congress, Congress as America's national museum for visionary art. The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum is the first African American wax museum in the country, featuring more than 150 life-size and lifelike wax figures.


Cuisine

Baltimore is known for its Maryland Callinectes sapidus, blue crabs, crab cake, Old Bay Seasoning, pit beef, and the "chicken box". The city has many restaurants in or around the Inner Harbor. The most known and acclaimed are the Charleston, Woodberry Kitchen, and the Duff Goldman, Charm City Cakes bakery featured on the Food Network's ''Ace of Cakes''. The Little 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. Many of the city's upscale restaurants can be found in Harbor East. Five public markets are located across the city. The Baltimore Public Markets, Baltimore Public Market System is the oldest continuously operating public market system in the United States. Lexington Market is one of the longest-running markets in the world and 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 find arabbers, vendors who sell fresh fruits and vegetables from a horse-drawn cart that goes up and down neighborhood streets. Food- and drink-rating site Zagat ranked Baltimore second in a list of the 17 best food cities in the country in 2015.


Local dialect

Baltimore city, along with its surrounding regions, is home to a unique local dialect known as the Baltimore dialect. It is part of the larger Mid-Atlantic American English group and is noted to be very similar to the Philadelphia dialect. 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]). It also 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". Baltimore native John Waters parodies the city and its dialect extensively in his films. Most are filmed in Baltimore, including the 1972 cult classic ''Pink Flamingos'', as well as ''Hairspray (1988 film), Hairspray'' and its Hairspray (musical), Broadway musical remake.


Performing arts

Baltimore has three state-designated arts and entertainment (A & E) districts. The Station North Arts and Entertainment District, Highlandtown Arts District, and the Bromo Arts & Entertainment District. The Baltimore Office of Promotion & 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 (festival), 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. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is an internationally renowned orchestra, founded in 1916 as a publicly funded municipal organization. Its most recent music director was Marin Alsop, a protégé of Leonard Bernstein's. Centerstage (theater), Centerstage is the premier theater company in the city and a regionally well-respected group. The Lyric Opera House is the home of Lyric Opera Baltimore, which operates there as part of the Patricia and Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center. The Baltimore Consort has been a leading early music ensemble for over twenty-five years. The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, home of the restored Thomas W. Lamb-designed
Hippodrome Theatre The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater in New York City from 1905 to 1939, located on Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Sixth Avenue between 43rd Street (Manhattan), West 43rd and 44th Street (Manhattan), West 44th St ...
, 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 the Everyman Theatre, Baltimore, Everyman, Centre, Senator Theatre, Senator, and most recently Parkway Theatre (Baltimore), Parkway Theatre. Other buildings have been reused; these include the former Mercantile Deposit and Trust (Baltimore, Maryland), Mercantile Deposit and Trust Company bank building, which is now The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theater. Baltimore also boasts 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 the The Arena Players, Arena Players Inc., which is the nation's oldest continuously operating African American community theater. In 2009, the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, an all-volunteer theatrical company, launched its first production. Baltimore is home to the Pride of Baltimore Chorus, a three-time international silver medalist women's chorus, affiliated with Sweet Adelines International. The Maryland State Boychoir is located in the northeastern Baltimore neighborhood of Mayfield. Baltimore is the home of non-profit chamber music organization Vivre Musicale. VM won a 2011–2012 award for Adventurous Programming from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Chamber Music America. The Peabody Institute, located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, is the oldest conservatory of music in the United States. Established in 1857, it is one of the most prestigious in the world, along with Juilliard School, Juilliard, Eastman School of Music, Eastman, and the Curtis Institute of Music, Curtis Institute. The Morgan State University Choir is also one of the nation's most prestigious university choral ensembles. The city is home to the Baltimore 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 international theatre companies, including from Ireland, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Israel. However, the festival proved to be expensive to mount, and the following year the festival was hosted in Denver, called the World Theatre Festival, at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, after the city had asked Kraizer to organize it. In June 1986, the 20th Theatre of Nations, sponsored by the International Theatre Institute, was held in Baltimore – the first time it had been held in the U.S.


Sports


Baseball

Baltimore has a long and storied baseball history, including its distinction as the birthplace of Babe Ruth in 1895. The original Baltimore Orioles (19th century), 19th 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 the New York Yankees. Ruth played for the Baltimore Orioles (minor league), minor 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. The team currently known as the Baltimore Orioles has represented Major League Baseball locally since 1954 when the St. Louis Browns moved to the city of 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. In 1995, local player (and later Hall of Famer) Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, for which Ripken was named Sportsman of the Year by ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine. Six former Orioles players, including Ripken (2007), and two of the team's managers have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Baseball Hall of Fame. Since 1992, the Orioles' home ballpark has been Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which has been hailed as one of the league's best since it opened.


Football

Prior to an NFL 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 or semi-professional teams. The first major league to base a team in Baltimore was the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), which had a team named the Baltimore Colts (1947–50), Baltimore 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. Three years later, the NFL's Dallas Texans (NFL), Dallas Texans would itself fold. Its assets and player contracts purchased by an ownership team headed by Baltimore businessman Carroll Rosenbloom, who moved the team to Baltimore, establishing a new team also named the History of the Baltimore Colts, Baltimore Colts. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Colts were one of the NFLs more successful franchises, led by Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas who set a then-record of 47 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. The Colts advanced to the NFL Championship twice (1958 & 1959) and Super Bowl twice (1969 & 1971), winning all except Super Bowl III in 1969. After the 1983 season, the team Baltimore Colts relocation to Indianapolis, left Baltimore for Indianapolis in 1984, where they became the Indianapolis Colts. The NFL returned to Baltimore when the former Cleveland Browns relocation controversy, Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore to become the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
in 1996. Since then, the Ravens won a Super Bowl championship in Super Bowl XXXV, 2000 and Super Bowl XLVII, 2012, six AFC North division championships (2003, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2018, and 2019), and appeared in four AFC Championship Games (2000, 2008, 2011 and 2012). Baltimore also hosted a Canadian Football League franchise, the Baltimore Stallions for the 1994 CFL season, 1994 and 1995 CFL season, 1995 seasons. Following the 1995 season, and ultimate end to the Canadian Football League in the United States experiment, the team was sold and relocated to Montreal.


Other teams and events

The first professional sports organization in the United States, Maryland Jockey Club, The Maryland Jockey Club, was formed in Baltimore in 1743. Preakness Stakes, the second race in the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, has been held every May at
Pimlico Race Course Pimlico Race Course is a thoroughbred horse racetrack in Baltimore, Maryland, most famous for hosting the Preakness Stakes. Its name is derived from the 1660s when English settlers named the area where the facility currently stands in honor of Ol ...
in Baltimore since 1873. College lacrosse is a common sport in the spring, as the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has won 44 national championships, the most of any program in history. In addition, Loyola University Maryland, Loyola University won its first men's NCAA lacrosse championship in 2012. The Baltimore Blast are a professional arena soccer team that play in the Major Arena Soccer League at the SECU Arena on the campus of Towson University. The Blast have won nine championships in various leagues, including the MASL. A previous entity of the Baltimore Blast (1980–92), Blast played in the Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–92), Major Indoor Soccer League from 1980 to 1992, winning one championship. The Baltimore Kings, a Baltimore Blast affiliate, joined Major Arena Soccer League 3, MASL 3 in 2021 to begin play in 2022. FC Baltimore, FC Baltimore 1729 was a semi-professional soccer club in the National Premier Soccer League, NPSL league, with the goal of bringing a community-oriented competitive soccer experience to the city of Baltimore. Their inaugural season started on May 11, 2018, and they played their home games at Community College of Baltimore County#Essex Campus, CCBC Essex Field. The Baltimore Blues were a semi-professional rugby league club which began competition in the USA Rugby League in 2012. The Baltimore Bohemians were an American Football (soccer), soccer club which competed in the USL Premier Development League, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. Their inaugural season started in the spring of 2012. The Baltimore 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 the American Le Mans Series on Saturday and the IndyCar Series on Sunday. Support races from smaller series were also held, including Indy 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. The athletic equipment company Under Armour is also based out of Baltimore. Founded in 1996 by
Kevin Plank Kevin Audette Plank (born August 13, 1972) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. Plank is the founder and executive chairman of Under Armour, a manufacturer of sportswear, footwear and accessories, based in Baltimore, Maryland ...
, a University of Maryland alumnus, the company's headquarters are located in Tide Point, adjacent to
Fort McHenry Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attac ...
and the Domino Sugar factory. The Baltimore Marathon is the flagship race of several races. The marathon begins at the Camden Yards sports complex and travels through many diverse neighborhoods of Baltimore, including the scenic Inner Harbor waterfront area, historic Federal Hill, Fells Point, and Canton, Baltimore. The race then proceeds to other important focal points of the city such as Patterson 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. The Baltimore Brigade were an Arena Football League team based in Baltimore that from 2017 to 2019 played at
Royal Farms Arena CFG Bank Arena (originally the Baltimore Civic Center and formerly Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore Arena and 1st Mariner Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Conventio ...
. The team ceased operations along with the league in 2019.


Parks and recreation

The City of Baltimore boasts over of parkland."City Profiles: Baltimore"
''The Trust for Public Land''. Retrieved on July 5, 2013
The Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks manages the majority of parks and recreational facilities in the city including Patterson Park, Federal Hill Park, and Druid Hill Park. The city is also home to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, a coastal star-shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812. , Trust for Public Land, The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization, ranks Baltimore 40th among the 75 largest U.S. cities.


Politics and government

Baltimore is an independent city, and not part of any county (United States), county. For most governmental purposes under Maryland law, Baltimore City is treated as a county-level entity. The United 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 a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic stronghold for over 150 years, with Democrats dominating every level of government. In virtually all elections, the Democratic primary is the real contest. As of the 2020 elections, registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republican Party (United States), Republicans by almost 10-to-1. No Republican has been elected to the City Council since 1939, and the city's last Republican mayor, Theodore McKeldin, left office in 1967. No Republican candidate since then has received 25 percent or more of the vote. In the 2016 Baltimore mayoral election, 2016 and 2020 Baltimore mayoral election, 2020 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 was Dwight Eisenhower in his successful reelection bid in 1956. The city hosted the first six Democratic National Conventions, from 1832 through 1852, and hosted the DNC again in 1860 Democratic National Convention, 1860, 1872 Democratic National Convention, 1872, and 1912 Democratic National Convention, 1912.


City government


Mayor

Brandon Scott is the current mayor of Baltimore. He was elected in 2020 and took office on December 8, 2020. Scott succeeded Jack Young who had been mayor since May 2, 2019, upon the resignation of Catherine Pugh. Prior to Pugh's official resignation, Young was the president of the Baltimore City Council and had been the acting mayor since April 2. Catherine Pugh became the Democratic nominee for mayor in 2016 and won the 2016 Baltimore mayoral election, mayoral election in 2016 with 57.1% of the vote; Pugh took office as mayor on December 6, 2016. Pugh took a leave of absence in April 2019 due to health concerns, then officially resigned from office on May 2. The resignation coincided with a scandal over a "self-dealing" book-sales arrangement. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake assumed the office of Mayor on February 4, 2010, when predecessor Dixon's resignation became effective. 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. 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 Mayor Martin O'Malley took office as Governor of Maryland. On November 6, 2007, Dixon won the Baltimore mayoral election, 2007, Baltimore 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 of embezzlement on December 1, 2009. A month later, Dixon made an Alford plea to a perjury charge and agreed to resign from office; Maryland, like most states, does not allow convicted felons to hold office.


Baltimore City Council

Grassroots pressure for reform, voiced as Question 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 the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), backed the effort. The Baltimore City Council is now made up of 14 single-member districts and one elected at-large council president. Current members of the council are Nick Mosby, Danielle McCray, Zeke Cohen, Ryan Dorsey, Mark Conway, Isaac Schleifer, Sharon Middleton, James Torrence, Kristerfer Burnett, John Bullock (Maryland politician), John Bullock, Phylicia Porter, Eric Costello, Robert Stokes, Sr., Antonio Glover, and Odette Ramos. Nick Mosby has been the council president since November 2020, when he was elected to succeed the role from Mayor Brandon Scott.


Law enforcement

The Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore City Police Department, founded 1784 as a "Night City Watch" and day Constables system and later reorganized as a City Department in 1853, with a following reorganization under State of Maryland supervision in 1859, with appointments made by the Governor of Maryland after a disturbing period of civic and elections violence with riots in the later part of the decade, is the current primary law enforcement agency serving the citizens of the City of Baltimore. Campus and building security for the city's Baltimore City Public Schools, public schools is provided by the Baltimore City Public Schools Police, established in the 1970s. In the period of 2011–2015, 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. The Maryland Transportation Authority Police under the Maryland Department of Transportation, (originally established as the "Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Police" when opened in 1957) is the primary law enforcement agency on the Fort McHenry Tunnel Thruway (Interstate 95), the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Thruway (Interstate 895), which go under the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River, and Interstate 395 (Maryland), Interstate 395, which has three ramp bridges crossing the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River which are under Maryland Transportation Authority, MdTA jurisdiction, the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, (BWI) and have limited concurrent jurisdiction with the Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore City Police Department under a "memorandum of understanding". Law enforcement on the fleet of transit buses and transit rail systems serving Baltimore is the responsibility of the Maryland Transit Administration Police, which is part of the Maryland Transit Administration of the state Maryland Department of Transportation, Department of Transportation. The MTA Police also share jurisdiction authority with the Baltimore City Police, governed by a memorandum of understanding. As the enforcement arm of the Baltimore circuit and district court system, the Baltimore City Sheriff's Office (Maryland), Baltimore 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, the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission and the Sheriff of the City of Baltimore. The United States Coast Guard, operating out of their shipyard and facility (since 1899) at Arundel Cove on Curtis Creek, (off Pennington Avenue extending to Hawkins Point Road/Fort Smallwood Road) in the Curtis Bay, Baltimore, Curtis 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 the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay. "Sector Baltimore" is responsible for commanding law enforcement and search & rescue units as well as aids to navigation.


Baltimore City Fire Department

The city of Baltimore is protected by the over 1,800 professional firefighters of the Baltimore City Fire Department (BCFD), which was founded in December 1858 and began operating the following year. Replacing several warring independent volunteer companies since the 1770s and the confusion resulting from Know-Nothing Riot of 1856, a 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.


State government

Since the legislative redistricting in 2002, Baltimore has had six legislative districts located entirely within its boundaries, giving the city six seats in the 47-member Maryland Senate and 18 in the 141-member Maryland House of Delegates. During the previous 10-year period, Baltimore had four legislative districts within the city limits, but four others overlapped the Baltimore County line. , all of Baltimore's state senators and delegates were Democrats.


State agencies


Federal government

Three of the state's eight congressional districts include portions of Baltimore: the Maryland's 2nd congressional district, 2nd, represented by Dutch Ruppersberger; the Maryland's 3rd congressional district, 3rd, represented by John Sarbanes; and the Maryland's 7th congressional district, 7th, represented by Kweisi Mfume. All three are Democrats; a Republican has not represented a significant portion of Baltimore in Congress since John Boynton Philip Clayton Hill represented the 3rd District in 1927, and has not represented any of Baltimore since the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Eastern Shore-based 1st District lost its share of Baltimore after the 2000 census; it was represented by Republican Wayne Gilchrest at the time. Maryland's senior United States senator, Ben Cardin, is from Baltimore. He is one of three people in the last four decades to have represented the 3rd District before being elected to the United 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 by Barbara 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. The United States Postal Service, Postal Service's Baltimore Main Post Office is located at 900 East Fayette Street in the Jonestown area. The national headquarters for the United States Social Security Administration is located in Woodlawn, just outside of Baltimore.


Education


Colleges and universities

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 12 accredited two-year or four-year colleges and universities. Among them are:


Private

*
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
* Baltimore International College * Loyola University Maryland * Maryland Institute College of Art * St. Mary's Seminary and University * Notre Dame of Maryland University * The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University * Stratford University (Baltimore campus)


Public

* Baltimore City Community College * Coppin State University * Morgan State University * University of Baltimore * University of Maryland, Baltimore


Primary and secondary schools

The city's public schools are managed by Baltimore City Public Schools, and include schools that have been well known in the area: Carver Vocational Technical High School, Carver Vocational-Technical High School, the first African American vocational high school and center that was established in the state of Maryland; Digital Harbor High School, one of the secondary schools that emphasizes information technology; Lake Clifton Eastern High School, which is the largest school campus in Baltimore City of physical size; the historic Frederick Douglass Senior High School (Baltimore, Maryland), Frederick Douglass High School, which is the second oldest African American high school in the United States; Baltimore City College, the third oldest public high school in the country; and Western High School (Baltimore, Maryland), Western High School, the oldest public all-girls school in the nation. Baltimore City College (also known as "City") and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (also known as "Poly") share the nation's second-oldest high school Baltimore City College football, football rivalry.


Transportation

The city of 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.


Roads and highways

Baltimore's highway growth has done much to influence the development of the city and its suburbs. The first limited-access highway serving Baltimore was the Baltimore–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 the National Park Service. Trucks are only permitted to use the northern part of the parkway. Trucks (tractor-trailers) continued to use U.S. Route 1 in Maryland, U.S. Route 1 (US 1) until Interstate 95 in Maryland, Interstate 95 (I-95) between Baltimore and Washington opened in 1971. The Interstate highways serving Baltimore are Interstate 70 in Maryland, I-70, I-83 (the Jones Falls Expressway), I-95, Interstate 395 (Maryland), I-395, Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway), Interstate 795 (Maryland), I-795 (the Northwest Expressway), Interstate 895 (Maryland), I-895 (the Harbor Tunnel Thruway), and Interstate 97, I-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 of highway revolts, freeway revolts in Baltimore. These revolts were led primarily by Barbara Mikulski, a former United 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-bore Fort McHenry Tunnel (opened in 1985 and serving I-95) and the two-bore Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, Harbor Tunnel (opened in 1957 and serving I-895). The Baltimore Beltway crosses south of Baltimore Harbor over the Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore), Francis Scott Key Bridge. The first interstate highway built in Baltimore was I-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, which meant that no residents or housing were directly affected. 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 the Interstate 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 only United States Numbered Highways, U.S. Highways in the city are US 1, which bypasses downtown, and U.S. Route 40 in Maryland, US 40, which crosses downtown from east to west. Both run along major surface streets; however, US 40 utilizes a small section of a freeway cancelled in the 1970s in the west side of the city originally intended for Interstate 170 (Maryland), Interstate 170. State routes in the city also travel along surface streets, with the exception of Maryland 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. In addition, the agency is in charge of vehicle towing and traffic cameras. BCDOT maintains all streets within the city of Baltimore. These include all streets that are marked as state and U.S. highways as well as the portions of I-83 and I-70 within the city limits. The only highways within the city that are not maintained by BCDOT are I-95, I-395, I-695, and I-895; those four highways are maintained by the Maryland Transportation Authority.


Transit systems


Public transit

Public transit in Baltimore is mostly provided by the Maryland Transit Administration (abbreviated "MTA Maryland") and Charm City Circulator. MTA Maryland operates a comprehensive MTA Maryland bus service, bus network, including many local, express, and commuter buses, Baltimore Light RailLink, a light rail network connecting Hunt Valley, Maryland, Hunt Valley in the north to BWI Airport and Cromwell Station / Glen Burnie (Baltimore Light Rail station), Cromwell (Glen Burnie, Maryland, Glen Burnie) in the south, and a Baltimore Metro SubwayLink, subway line between Owings Mills, Maryland, Owings Mills and Johns Hopkins Hospital. A proposed rail line, known as the Red Line (Baltimore), Red Line, which would link the Social Security Administration to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and perhaps the Canton and Dundalk, Maryland, Dundalk communities, was cancelled by Governor Larry Hogan; a proposal to extend Baltimore's existing subway line to Morgan State University, known as the Green Line (Baltimore), Green Line, is in the planning stages. The Charm City Circulator (CCC), a shuttle bus service operated by Veolia Transportation for the Baltimore 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 minutes at designated stops during service hours. The CCC's first bus line, the Orange route, travels between Hollins Market and Harbor East. Its Purple route, launched June 7, 2010, operates between Fort Avenue and 33rd St. The Green route runs between Johns Hopkins and City Hall. The Charm City Circulator operates a fleet of diesel and hybrid vehicles built by DesignLine, Orion, and Van Hool. Baltimore also has a water taxi service, operated by Baltimore Water Taxi. The water taxi's six routes provide service throughout the city's harbor, and was purchased by Under Armour CEO
Kevin Plank Kevin Audette Plank (born August 13, 1972) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. Plank is the founder and executive chairman of Under Armour, a manufacturer of sportswear, footwear and accessories, based in Baltimore, Maryland ...
's Sagamore Ventures in 2016. In June 2017, The BaltimoreLink started operating; it is the redesign of the region's initial bus system. The BaltimoreLink runs through downtown Baltimore every 10 minutes via color-coded, high-frequency CityLink routes.


Intercity rail

Baltimore is a top destination for Amtrak along the Northeast Corridor. Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station (Baltimore), Penn Station is one of the busiest in the country. In FY 2014, Penn Station was ranked the List of busiest Amtrak stations, seventh-busiest rail station in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
by number of passengers served each year. 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, Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, which opened in 1873 and whose limit, sharp curves, and steep grades make it one of the NEC's worst bottlenecks. The NEC's northern approach is the 1873 Union Tunnel (Baltimore), Union Tunnel, which has one single track (rail), single-track bore and one double track, double-track bore. Just outside the city, BWI Rail Station, Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) Thurgood Marshall Airport Rail Station is another stop. Amtrak's ''Acela Express'', ''Palmetto (train), Palmetto'', ''Carolinian (train), Carolinian'', ''Silver Star (Amtrak train), Silver Star'', ''Silver Meteor'', ''Vermonter (train), Vermonter'', ''Crescent (train), Crescent'', and ''Northeast Regional'' trains are the scheduled passenger train services that stop in the city. Additionally, MARC Train, MARC commuter rail service connects the city's two main intercity rail stations, Camden Station and Penn Station, with Washington, D.C.'s Union Station (Washington, D.C.), Union Station as well as stops in between. The MARC consists of 3 lines; the Brunswick, Camden and Penn. On December 7, 2013, the Penn Line began weekend service.


Airports

Baltimore is served by two airports, both operated by the Maryland Aviation Administration, which is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation. Baltimore–Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, generally known as "BWI", lies about to the south of Baltimore in neighboring Anne Arundel County. The airport is named after Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore native who was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. In terms of passenger traffic, BWI is the 22nd busiest airport in the United States. As of calendar year 2014, BWI is the largest, by passenger count, of three major airports serving the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. It is accessible by I-95 and the Baltimore–Washington Parkway via Interstate 195 (Maryland), Interstate 195, the Baltimore Light Rail, and Amtrak and MARC Train at BWI Rail Station. Baltimore is also served by Martin State Airport, a general aviation facility, to the northeast in Baltimore County. Martin State Airport is linked to downtown Baltimore by Maryland Route 150 (Eastern Avenue) and by MARC Train at Martin State Airport (MARC station), its own station.


Pedestrians and bicycles

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 added between 2006 and 2014. Alongside bike lanes, Baltimore has also built bike boulevards, starting with Guilford Avenue in 2012. Baltimore currently has three major trail systems within the city. The Gwynns Falls Trail runs from the Inner Harbor to the I-70 Park and Ride, passing through Gwynns Falls Park and possessing numerous branches. There are also many pedestrian hiking trails traversing the park. The Jones Falls Trail currently runs from the Inner Harbor to the Cylburn Arboretum; however, it is currently undergoing expansion. Long-term plans call for it to extend to the Mount Washington (Baltimore Light Rail station), Mount 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 also incorporate a spur alongside Western Run. The two aforementioned trails carry sections of the East Coast Greenway through the city. There is also the Herring Run Trail, which runs from Maryland Route 147, Harford Road east to its end beyond Sinclair Lane, utilizing Herring Run Park; long-term plans also call for its extension to Morgan 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 by Walk Score ranked Baltimore the 14th most walkable of fifty largest U.S. cities.


Port of Baltimore

The port was founded in 1706, preceding the founding of Baltimore. The Maryland colonial legislature made the area near Locust Point as the port of entry for the tobacco 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 of Baltimore Clipper, clipper ships. After Baltimore's founding, mills were built behind the wharves. The California 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 with Brazil. At the end of the nineteenth century, European ship lines had terminals for immigrants. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made the port a major transshipment point. Currently the port has major roll-on/roll-off facilities, as well as bulk facilities, especially steel handling. Water taxis also operate in the Inner Harbor. Governor Ehrlich participated in naming the port after Helen Delich Bentley during the 300th anniversary of the port. 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 in eastern Baltimore City, and the site will yield of warehouse/distribution and office space. Chesapeake Commerce Center has direct access to two major Interstate highways (I-95 and Interstate 895 (Maryland), I-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 dredge to accommodate the largest shipping vessels. 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. Passengers from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey make up a third of the volume, with travelers from Maryland, Virginia, the District and even Ohio and the Carolinas making up the rest.


Environment

Baltimore's Inner Harbor, known for its skyline waterscape and its tourist-friendly areas, was horribly polluted. The waterway was often filled with garbage after heavy rainstorms, failing its 2014 water quality report card. The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore took steps to remediate the waterways, in hopes that the harbor would be fishable and swimmable once again.


Trash interceptors

Baltimore has four water wheel trash interceptors for removing garbage in area waterways. One is at the mouth of Jones Falls in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, dubbed "Mr. Trash Wheel." Another, "Professor Trash Wheel" was added at Harris Creek in the Canton neighborhood in 2016, with "Captain Trash Wheel" following at Mason Creek in 2018 and "Gwynnda, the Good Wheel of the West" at the mouth of the Gwynns Falls in 2021. 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.


Other water pollution control

In August 2010, the National Aquarium assembled, planted, and launched a floating island, floating wetland island designed by Biohabitats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Hundreds of years ago Baltimore's harbor shoreline would have been lined with tidal wetlands. Floating wetlands provide many environmental benefits to water quality and habitat enhancement, which is why the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore has included them in their Healthy Harbor Initiative pilot projects. 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 a Constructed wetland, constructed tidal wetland. Other projects to improve water quality include the Blue Alleys project, expanded street sweeping, and stream restoration.


Media

Baltimore's main media outlet since 2010 is Baltimore Brew, edited by Fern Shen and Mark Reutter, investigative journalists of the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun, respectively. '' The Baltimore Sun'' was sold by its Baltimore owners in 1986 to the Times Mirror Company, which was bought by the Tribune Company in 2000. Since the recent sale, The Baltimore Sun prints some local news along with regional and national articles. The ''Baltimore News-American'', another long-running paper that competed with the Sun, ceased publication in 1986. The city is home to the Baltimore Afro-American, an influential African American newspaper founded in 1892. In 2006, ''The Baltimore Examiner'' was launched to compete with ''The Sun''. It was part of a national chain that includes ''The San Francisco Examiner'' and ''The Washington Examiner''. In contrast to the paid subscription ''Sun'', ''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. Despite being located 40 miles northeast of Washington, D.C., Baltimore is a major media market in its own right, with all major English language television networks represented in the city. WJZ-TV 13 is a CBS owned and operated station, and WBFF 45 (Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox) is the flagship of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest station owner in the country. Other major television stations in Baltimore include WMAR-TV 2 (American Broadcasting Company, ABC), WBAL-TV 11 (NBC), WUTB 24 (TBD (TV network), TBD), WBFF, WBFF-DT2 45.2 (MyNetworkTV), WNUV 54 (The CW, CW), and WMPB 67 (PBS). Baltimore is also served by low-power station WMJF-CD 39 (Ion Television, Ion), which transmits from the campus of Towson University. Nielsen ranked Baltimore as the 26th-largest television market for the 2008–2009 viewing season and the 27th-largest for 2009–2010. Arbitron's Fall 2010 rankings identified Baltimore as the 22nd largest radio market.


Notable people

* Spiro Agnew, 39th US vice president * Cass Elliot (1941–1974), born Ellen Naomi Cohen, singer, member of The Mamas & the Papas * Eubie Blake, early jazz pianist and composer * Tom Clancy, author of the Ryanverse, Jack Ryan Book Series * Elijah Cummings, civil rights advocate and congressman of the US House of Representatives * Gervonta Davis, professional boxer, four-time world champion in two weight classes * Daniel Coit Gilman, founding president of
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
* David Hasselhoff, actor, producer, businessman * Kyle Harrison, professional lacrosse player, first black Tewaaraton Award recipient * Johns Hopkins, American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist; namesake of
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
* Thurgood Marshall, African-American US Supreme Court Justice * H. L. Mencken, American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English * Ric Ocasek, American musician and frontman of the Cars * Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives * Michael Phelps, Olympic swimmer * Edgar Allan Poe, poet * Emily Post, author of etiquette books * Babe Ruth, baseball player * Jada Pinkett Smith, actress, singer, and businesswoman * M. Carey Thomas, American educator, Suffragette, suffragist, and linguist * Anne Tyler, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist * John Waters, filmmaker * Frank Zappa, singer, guitarist, composer, and satirist * Julie Bowen, actress * Muggsy Bogues, basketball player


International relations

Baltimore's own Sister City Committees recognize eight of these sister cities, indicated above with a "B" notation. Three additional sister cities have "emeritus status": * Genova, Italy (1985) * Ely O'Carroll, Ireland * Bremerhaven, Germany (2007)


See also

* Baltimore Development Corporation * Baltimore in fiction * ''Bluegrass in Baltimore: The Hard Drivin' Sound and Its Legacy'' (Book on the history of the History of the Appalachian people in Baltimore, Appalachian migrants' move into the city in the 20th century) * History of the Germans in Baltimore, Maryland * :Cemeteries in Baltimore * ''''


Explanatory notes


References


Citations


General bibliography

* 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.) . * 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. * John Thomas Scharf, Scharf, J. Thomas (1879). ''History of Maryland from the Earliest Period to the Present Day''. Baltimore: John B. Piet
Vol. 1Vol. 2Vol. 3
* * 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. . * *


Further reading

*


External links

*
Baltimore City Council

Visit Baltimore – official Destination Marketing Organization

Baltimore City Public Schools

Baltimore Development Corporation


historic maps at the Johns Hopkins University Libraries, Sheridan Libraries.
Papenfuse: Atlases and Maps of Baltimore City and County, 1876–1915 & Block Maps
April 2005 * ''The Wall Street Journal''
Baltimore Demographics
2015. {{Authority control Baltimore, 1729 establishments in Maryland Cities in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, Cities in Maryland Former capitals of the United States Independent cities in the United States Maryland counties on the Chesapeake Bay Maryland counties Maryland populated places on the Chesapeake Bay Populated places established in 1729 Port cities and towns in Maryland Ukrainian communities in the United States Majority-minority counties and independent cities in Maryland