On the night of September 13 to 14, 1814, a 30-hour British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry failed to reduce the American garrison defending Baltimore Harbor. When dawn came on September 14, a large American flag flying above the battered fort was the first thing visible to the fleet. That flag — and the poem it inspired Francis Scott Key to write — became The Star-Spangled Banner, and Fort McHenry became a site permanently linked to American national identity. Now, nearly two centuries later, the fort’s flag is illuminated at night by electricity generated by solar panels installed on the historic site — a marriage of nineteenth-century symbolism and twenty-first-century sustainability that the park’s managers see as entirely appropriate.
The Battle and the Flag
Fort McHenry was a five-sided brick fortification guarding the mouth of the Patapsco River, the main waterway approach to Baltimore. In September 1814, a British fleet attempting to capture Baltimore — which, combined with the burning of Washington a month earlier, would have dealt a potentially fatal blow to American morale — turned its attention to the fort. The bombardment that followed was the largest naval assault on American soil the country had yet experienced.
The flag that flew over the fort during the battle was 30 by 42 feet — deliberately oversized so it could be seen from the British fleet offshore. Mary Pickersgill and her daughter Caroline had sewn it that summer in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood, completing it just weeks before it was needed. The original flag survived the battle and is now preserved at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, a conservation project that returned it to public display after years of restoration work.
Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer detained on a British ship during the bombardment while negotiating prisoner releases, watched the battle from the harbor and wrote the poem that became the national anthem as the dawn revealed the flag still flying. The poem was set to a popular English drinking tune and circulated rapidly; Congress officially designated it as the national anthem in 1931.
Solar Illumination: An NPS Sustainability Investment
The National Park Service has worked for more than two decades to reduce the environmental footprint of its operations across more than 400 sites. Fort McHenry, as a heavily visited site in an urban setting, offers particular opportunities for visible sustainability investments — and visible sustainability investments at a site as symbolically charged as this one carry an outsized educational message.
The solar installation at Fort McHenry powers the nighttime illumination of the flag that flies above the fort — maintaining a tradition of keeping the flag visible after dark while replacing grid electricity with renewable generation. The project is part of a broader NPS initiative to deploy solar, wind, and geothermal energy across park facilities where such projects are feasible without compromising historic integrity.
The challenge at a historic site is always aesthetic and structural: solar panels that damage historic fabric or visually intrude on a site’s character undermine the preservation mission. Fort McHenry’s installation was sited to minimize visual impact from the primary visitor perspectives while maximizing solar collection efficiency — a balance that required close coordination between the park’s energy managers and its historic preservation staff.
Visit Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine for current tour schedules and interpretive program information.
Why Sustainability Fits the Preservation Mandate
The connection between renewable energy and historic preservation is not obvious at first glance, but the NPS makes a coherent argument for it. The park system exists to preserve resources for future generations — and a climate-destabilized future is one that poses direct threats to those resources through sea level rise, intensifying storms, drought, and habitat disruption. Reducing the park system’s carbon footprint is, from this perspective, part of the same long-term conservation mission that motivates the preservation of historic structures and natural landscapes.
Fort McHenry’s solar flag illumination offers a specific additional resonance: the flag that survived a British bombardment is now kept lit by energy from the sun rather than from fossil fuels. The symbolism is not lost on the park’s interpretive staff.
Visiting Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry sits on a peninsula in Baltimore Harbor, accessible from the city center. The park includes the restored fortification itself — open for self-guided tours — and a visitor center that shows a 16-minute film, “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” providing context for the War of 1812 and the flag’s significance. Living history programs, especially around the anniversary of the bombardment in September, bring uniformed interpreters and cannon demonstrations.
The evening flag retreat ceremony, when the large garrison flag is replaced by a smaller storm flag at dusk, is a moving daily event that connects visitors to the flag’s continuing symbolism. The nighttime illumination — powered now by solar energy — is visible from the harbor and from the surrounding neighborhoods of South Baltimore.
For news on sustainability and preservation initiatives across the national park system, see the park-news section.