Hey, Hon, Ready to Learn How They Talk in Baltimore?

This week on our program, we tell you about the past and present of the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

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STEVE EMBER: We start with the name. Many Baltimore natives pronounce it "Bawlmer" or "Bawl-ah-mur." This is just one example of Bawlmerese. Later in our program, we'll give you a lesson in this local way of speaking in Baltimore.

Baltimore is a historic port city in the eastern United States, sixty or so kilometers from Washington. Baltimore had about twenty thousand people when it became a city at the end of seventeen ninety-six. Last year's national census count estimated the population at six hundred twenty-one thousand. Baltimore is the largest city in the state of Maryland.

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Visitors to Baltimore find entertainment in areas like the redeveloped Inner Harbor and the waterfront community of Fells Point. Yet many people around the world only know the areas of Baltimore shown on TV dramas like "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Wire."

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David Simon created "The Wire" based largely on his years as a newspaper reporter covering crime for the Baltimore Sun. But, in real life, murder rates are down from the highs fueled by the violent drug trade of years past.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The first settlers came to the area in the middle of the sixteen hundreds. The settlement was named Baltimore Town in honor of Lord Baltimore of England.

Maryland was one of the thirteen British colonies that declared their independence and formed the United States in seventeen seventy-six. Baltimore served as the nation's capital for two months during the American Revolution.

America and Britain went to war again in eighteen twelve. American ships sailed from Baltimore Harbor into the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean and attacked British ships.

As a result of these attacks, Baltimore became a target. In September of eighteen fourteen, British ships attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor.

The attack lasted all night. An American lawyer and poet named Francis Scott Key was on a ship in the harbor. He wrote a poem about the huge American flag that he saw flying over Fort McHenry. He wondered, would it still be there after the battle was over? It was.

Key's poem, set to music, became popular. Then, many years later, on March third, nineteen thirty-one, "The Star-Spangled Banner" officially became America's national anthem.

The earliest known copy of the poem in Francis Scott Key's own handwriting is housed at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. But for the next three months it will be shown at Fort McHenry. The national monument is celebrating the opening of a new, fifteen-million-dollar visitors center. The celebration also marks the eightieth anniversary of Congress' declaring "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem.

STEVE EMBER: During the eighteen hundreds, Baltimore grew as a business center. It has one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Ships carried goods to and from Europe and South America.

Ships also brought immigrants to America by way of Baltimore. The city was once a major port of entry, second only to Ellis Island in New York Harbor.

Baltimore also became a banking center and a center of education and medicine. The city has a well-known university and hospital that are both named after Johns Hopkins. He was a businessman who died in eighteen seventy-three.

FAITH LAPIDUS: During the nineteen hundreds, Baltimore continued to grow.