In 1776, with the outbreak of the
American Revolution, the citizens of the
City of Baltimore, assisted by the
State of Maryland, dug fortifications at the end of the "Whetstone Point" peninsula that juts into
Baltimore Harbor between the Northwest Branch of the
Patapsco River on the north and the Middle Branch and the Ferry Branch (now the Southern Branche) to the south. This fort was named "Fort Whetstone". This fort escaped British attack, although it was nearly attacked in August 1777 when a British fleet from
New York City sailed up the
Chesapeake Bay to the
Head of Elk in
Cecil County in the northeastern corner of the state. There the ships disembarked troops heading for the new American
capital city in
Philadelphia, and thus engaged in the
Battle of Brandywine and the
Battle of Germantown. However, Baltimore was considered safe enough for the
Continental Congress to meet in when Philadelphia was overrun. Later near the war's end, French troops under Comte de
Rochambeau and the American Continental troops under
George Washington marched through the area and they camped for several weeks during their southward movement to trap the army of British General Lord Cornwallis at
Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. Hence, Fort Whetstone's batteries of cannon never yet had to fire in anger. Starting In 1793 the Fort was rebuilt from scratch. By 1798, a new star-shaped fortification with additional buildings, barracks, storehouses, and bunkers was constructed under the design of French
military engineer Jean Foncin, and it was renamed
Fort McHenry for
James McHenry of Maryland, third
U.S. Secretary of War. When Fort McHenry blocked the attempted invasion of Baltimore's inner harbor by British warships in September 1814, it was located on a grassy peninsula that was used for pasture. The grassy but jaggedly shaped peninsula point had been known as Whetstone Point, also the name of a park in London, since it was established as a port of entry by the Maryland Colonial Assembly in 1706, twenty-three years before the establishment of the town. Whetstone Point and the future South Baltimore peninsula was annexed by the City of Baltimore in 1816. The peninsula was renamed Locust Point in 1846, for the locust trees growing on the peninsula. The oldest buildings are from circa 1840-1850, two-story houses on Cuba, Clement, and Towson Streets. Portions of the neighborhood were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The area of Locust Point was featured in the second season of the
HBO cable TV series
The Wire. On June 10, 2013, a
tornado hit the Locust Point area as a part of a severe storm system sprawling across the East Coast. The tornado caused damage to a warehouse nearby. == Industry ==