♪ SHANNON: Welcome to Fort McHenry!

LAURITA: Thank you.

SHANNON: You guys haven't been here before, huh?

LAURITA: I have never been here.

SHANNON: Alright, well, welcome to Baltimore.

Now, my name's Shannon and I'm going to be showing you around, I'm a Park Ranger here.

Hat's a giveaway.

So we're just in time for the flag change, the most popular program, so we're gonna head on up to the fort.

LAURITA: Awesome, let's do it.

SHANNON: Alright.

Good morning folks, and welcome to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.

Each morning we've done this, they've done it here for well over 200 years, we're gonna switch out the flag.

Now you guys are all represented on that modern flag, the one we're going to put up in a few minutes is, we're going to put up this 15-star, 15-stripe version of The Star-Spangled Banner.

So, the flag they would have flown during the War of 1812, the thing that makes Fort McHenry famous, makes us a national monument and historic shrine.

♪ ("Yankee Doodle" playing).

So was that fun?

LAURITA: It was!

LAUREN: That was!

SHANNON: Alright, so you raised the flag over Fort McHenry, not everybody gets to do that.

Fort McHenry was built in 1802, it is a 43-acre park situated just inside the city.

And it was built here specifically to protect the Port of Baltimore, as kind of a sentinel of the harbor just in case, because things are heating up over in Europe with the Napoleonic wars.

So, there's concern about coastal cities, generally.

Fort McHenry is best known as the home of the "Star-Spangled Banner" and Francis Scott Key's famous song, which we now know as our national anthem.

The Battle of Baltimore comes around in the summer of 1814, and Baltimore at that point in time is the third-largest city in the United States, it was one of its major ports.

Key was just beyond the British command ship, he's on a truce ship, and he watches the bombardment, looking toward the fort.

And so he's writing his emotional reaction to the bombardment and its aftermath.

Often folks, when they hear the national anthem, they think it's about the flag, right.

It actually serves as a symbol indicating that the fort is still standing.

So he's really writing about the defenders themselves, who are the people of Baltimore.

Recognizing that the Americans had persevered throughout the night.

LAURITA: When you listen to the Star-Spangled Banner now, you get a different point of view, knowing that was a first-hand visual account.

SHANNON: Yeah, it is an emotional reaction to a moment.

LAUREN: So, you mentioned that Francis Scott Key was waiting and watching for the war to be over, where was he exactly?

SHANNON: He's actually just a few more miles down here, if you head toward the, that's the Key Bridge.

LAUREN: Okay.

LAURITA: Okay.

SHANNON: So it's, it's a handy reminder.

I always remind folks, you know, you're standing exactly where those men stood when they did this back in 1814.

And just to think about what for the people of Baltimore were doing for the nation at the time.

LAURITA: Shannon, I have my National Parks passport book.

SHANNON: Okay, we can give it a stamp just here.

LAURITA: This is the Fort McHenry stamp.

LAUREN: Star-Spangled Banner stamp.

LAURITA: Well thank you so much, Shannon.

You are a walking history machine!

SHANNON: Oh, thank you guys for visiting.

I'm glad to have you guys in our hometown.

(camera shutter).

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