Inner Harbor

USS Torsk, hull number SS-423, is a Tench-class submarine built for the United States Navy during World War II. Armed with ten torpedo tubes, the Tench-class submarines were incremental developments of the highly-successful Gato-class submarines that formed the backbone of the US Navy's submarine force during the war. Torsk was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in June 1944, was launched in September that year, and commissioned in December. In 1945, Torsk made two war patrols off Japan, sinking one cargo vessel and two coastal defense frigates. The latter of these, torpedoed on 14 August 1945, was the last enemy ship sunk by the United States Navy in World War II. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she operated primarily as a training vessel; she also went on deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and helped to train elements of the Atlantic Fleet in anti-submarine tactics. Decommissioned in 1964, she served for another seven years as a training vessel for the Naval Reserve. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in December 1971 and turned over to the state of Maryland for use as a museum ship. She is now part of the fleet of Historic Ships in Baltimore.

The Baltimore–Columbia–Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Central Maryland, is a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in Maryland as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It is part of the larger Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. As of 2022, the combined population of the seven counties is 2,985,871, making it the 20th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the nation. The area has the fourth-highest median household income in the United States, at $66,970 as of 2012.

The Baltimore City Heritage Walk is a heritage trail that links 20 historic sites and museums in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It is 3.2 miles long. Sites and museums located along the trail include: U.S.S. Constellation Museum, Pier 1, (Constellation Dock), East Pratt Street, at South Calvert Street World Trade Center / Top of the World observation deck, (Maryland Port Administration), Pier 2, 401 East Pratt Street Baltimore Maritime Museum, (Historic Ships in Baltimore), Pier 3 (and Piers 4 & 5), 500 block - East Pratt Street Baltimore Public Works Museum, (old Eastern Avenue Sewage Pumping Station), 751 Eastern Avenue, at President Street boulevard. President Street Station, (Baltimore Civil War Museum), 601 President Street [boulevard], at Fleet Street Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, and War of 1812 Museum, (home of Mary Pickersgill), 844 East Pratt Street at Albemarle Street Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, 830 East Pratt Street (at President Street boulevard) Carroll Mansion, (city townhouse/mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton), East Lombard Street, off Front Street / President Street boulevard Jewish Museum of Maryland, (Lloyd Street Synagogue and B'nai Israel Synagogue), Lloyd Street at Watson Street (off East Lombard Street) McKim Free School, 1120 East Baltimore Street at Asquith Street Old Town Friends' Meetinghouse, 1201 East Fayette Street, at Asquith Street Nine North Front Street (Second Mayor Thorowgood Smith's Home / Women's Civic League offices) Phoenix Shot Tower, East Fayette and North Front Streets St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church, 120 North Front Street (at East Fayette Street) War Memorial Plaza (War Memorial Hall), 100 block North Gay Streets, between East Fayette and Lexington Streets Zion Church of the City of Baltimore, (Evangelical Lutheran), 400 East Lexington Street at North Gay Street Peale Museum, (old Municipal Museum - now conference center), 225 North Holliday Street Baltimore City Hall, 100 Holliday Street (between East Fayette and Lexington Streets) Battle Monument, (War of 1812 / Battle of Baltimore, 1814), 100 block North Calvert Street, between East Fayette and East Lexington Streets Alex. Brown Building, 135 East Baltimore Street, at South Calvert Street

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 conventions into the city of Baltimore, Maryland, but does not manage the actual convention venues, hotels, or museums in the city.

USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built at the Gosport Shipyard between 1853 and 1855 and was named for the earlier frigate of the same name that had been broken up in 1853. The sloop's primary armament was 8-inch (203 mm) shell-firing guns and four 32-pounder long guns, though she carried other guns as well, including two Parrott rifle chase guns. Constellation's career as a front-line unit was relatively short; after entering service in 1855, she served with the Mediterranean Squadron until 1858, and in 1859, she was assigned as the flagship of the Africa Squadron, where she served with the African Slave Trade Patrol. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the ship returned to the Mediterranean to patrol for Confederate vessels. In late 1864, she returned to the United States to be decommissioned, as most of her crews' enlistments had expired. She spent the rest of the war out of service. Constellation was recommissioned in 1871 for use as a training ship, being used for shooting practice and training cruises for midshipmen. She filled this role for twenty-two years, and during this period, she saw a number of other activities, including transporting exhibits for the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris and carrying food to Ireland during the 1879 Irish famine. She was reduced to a stationary training hulk in late 1893, being moored in Newport for the next twenty years. During this period, the mistaken belief that the two Constellations were one and the same arose, and she was presented as such in 1914 during the centennial of the writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States. Briefly renamed Old Constellation in 1917 to free the name for a new battlecruiser of the Lexington class, she reverted to her original name when the battlecruiser was scrapped in 1925. Constellation was recommissioned in 1940 as part of the build-up in anticipation of the United States' entry into World War II, during which she served as the port flagship of the commander of the Atlantic Fleet. Proposals to restore the vessel as a museum ship had been submitted already in the 1930s, but work began in earnest after World War II. Shortages of funds prevented her transfer to the city of Baltimore, Maryland until 1955. Operating under the mistaken belief that she was the original Constellation, the organization responsible for the ship modified her to match the earlier vessel's appearance during a refit in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, a controversy arose over the vessel's identity that lasted into the 1990s, when new research definitively proved that the Constellation launched in 1797 and the 1854-launched vessel were distinct ships. Periodic repairs have been carried out since the mid-1990s to repair rotted wood. Constellation remains open to the public as part of the Historic Ships in Baltimore in the city's Inner Harbor, having been designated a National Historic Landmark.

United States lightship Chesapeake (LS-116/WAL-538/WLV-538) is a museum ship owned by the National Park Service and on a 25-year loan to Baltimore City, and is operated by Historic Ships in Baltimore Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of a small number of preserved lightships. Since 1820, several lightships have served at the Chesapeake lightship station and have been called Chesapeake. Lightships were initially lettered in the early 1800s, but then numbered as they were often moved from one light station to another. The name painted on the side of lightships was the short name of the Light Station they were assigned to and was the day time visual aspect of the many Aids to Navigation on board lightships. The United States Coast Guard assigned new hull numbers to all lightships still in service in April 1950. After that date, Light Ship 116 was then known by the new Coast Guard Hull number: WAL-538. In January 1965 the Coast Guard further modified all lightship hull designations from WAL to WLV, so Chesapeake became WLV-538. Chesapeake had many redundant systems in order to maintain her position through most storms. The 5000-pound (2300 kg) main anchor was backed up by a second 5000-pound anchor attached to the side of the ship. The 30,000 candela main light was also backed up with a secondary lamp and the Radio Locator Beacon also had a backup system. On more than one occasion (in 1933, 1936, and 1962) the main anchor chain snapped during violent storms and the ship had to use her engines to stay in place and drop her second anchor.

Located on the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, the Baltimore World Trade Center is the world's tallest regular pentagonal-based skyscraper (the pentagonal-based JPMorgan Chase Tower in Houston is taller, but is not regular). It was designed by the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, with the principal architects being Henry N. Cobb and Pershing Wong.Planning and design of the building began in April 1966. Construction started in October 1973. The building was completed in January 1977, and its construction cost was of $22 million.Rising 405 ft (123 m) above the one-acre plaza where it stands between Pratt Street and the harbor, the building is 30 stories tall when its basement, lobby level and upper utility level are included in the count. Gross floor space covers 422,000 sq ft (39,200 m2). Major building components include 309,000 sq ft (28,700 m2) of office floors, a lobby of 13,000 sq ft (1,200 m2), a basement of 20,800 sq ft (1,930 m2) and 38,000 sq ft (3,500 m2) of ground level plaza.

Harborplace is a shopping complex on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Maryland Science Center, located in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, opened to the public in 1976. It includes three levels of exhibits, a planetarium, and an observatory. It was one of the original structures that drove the revitalization of the Baltimore Inner Harbor from its industrial roots to a thriving downtown destination. In 1987, an IMAX theater was added, but the museum continued to show its age as the end of the 20th century approached. In May 2004, a large addition to the property was opened, and the modernized hands-on exhibits now include more than two dozen dinosaur skeletons. Subjects that the center displays include physical science, space, and the human body. Maryland Science Center won a 2006 Best of Baltimore award for "Best Place to Take Kids." In 2008, the Maryland Science Center was named one of the “10-Best Science Centers for Families” by Parent's magazine.

The National Aquarium – also known as National Aquarium in Baltimore and formerly known as Baltimore Aquarium – is a non-profit public aquarium located at 501 East Pratt Street on Pier 3 in the Inner Harbor area of downtown Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. Constructed during a period of urban renewal in Baltimore, the aquarium opened on August 8, 1981. The aquarium has an annual attendance of 1.5 million visitors and is the largest tourism attraction in the State of Maryland. The aquarium holds more than 2,200,000 US gallons (8,300,000 L) of water, and has more than 17,000 specimens representing over 750 species. The National Aquarium's mission is to inspire conservation of the world's aquatic treasures. The aquarium's stated vision is to confront pressing issues facing global aquatic habitats through pioneering science, conservation, and educational programming.The National Aquarium houses several exhibits including the Upland Tropical Rain Forest, a multiple-story Atlantic Coral Reef, an open-ocean shark tank, and Australia: Wild Extremes, which won the "Best Exhibit" award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2008. The aquarium also has a "4D Immersion Theater." The aquarium opened a marine mammal pavilion on the adjacent south end of Pier 4 in 1990, and currently holds six Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Of the six, five were born at the National Aquarium, one was born at another American aquarium. In 2003, the National Aquarium and the much older and independent National Aquarium in Washington, D.C., formed an alliance to operate as a single National Aquarium with two sites. This arrangement continued until 2013, when the Washington location closed permanently.

300 East Pratt Street is a proposed skyscraper in Baltimore, Maryland. The building, originally expected to rise 640 feet (200 m), is current on hold due to high vacancy rates in the city. Construction of the building was to begin in 2007 and was originally expected to be completed in 2010. The construction of this building was proposed in 2003, though, it was never approved by the state of Maryland. In 2006, the construction of the building was again proposed, and finally approved by the state of Maryland. The building is being built where the Hearst Production Building once stood. Plans are now scaled back to 40 stories and 300,000 square feet of office space, in addition to a 270-room hotel. 300 East Pratt Street is located in Baltimore, MD between Commerce and South streets, housed the former Baltimore News-American building. It has been vacant and used for a parking lot for decades. However, parking lot owner InterPark LLC purchased the site in August 2013 after a redevelopment plan proposed by Urban America LP in 2006 fell apart during the recession. As of January 2022, MCB Real Estate LLC owns and is developing the property. No further plans or details have been provided at this time.

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 collection includes four historic museum ships and one lighthouse: USS Constellation, a sloop-of-war; the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy WHEC-37, a Coast Guard cutter; the last surviving vessel that participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor USS Torsk (SS-423), a World War II-era submarine; credited with the last sinking of an enemy ship by the USN in that war Chesapeake (LV-116), a lightship; stationed at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay for most of her 40-year service life Seven Foot Knoll Light, a screw-pile lighthouseAll are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The four ships are also National Historic Landmarks.The Liberty ship SS John W. Brown is also homeported out of Baltimore. Historic Ships in Baltimore is an affiliate of the Living Classrooms Foundation.