1814年，英国在欧洲战场取得了对拿破仑的决定性胜利后，增兵北美。8月，英国陆军在上将罗伯特·罗斯指挥下攻入华盛顿，并焚毁了白宫。

9月13日，英国皇家海军直取巴尔的摩的麦克亨利堡（Fort McHenry, NM & Historic Shrine ），欲攻取当时这座美国最重要的港口。

炮火持续了25个小时。9月14日，一位年轻的美国律师弗朗西斯·斯科特·基在巴尔的摩港遥望硝烟弥漫的麦克亨利堡,惊喜地发现，美国国旗仍然高高飘扬在城堡上空。感触中，基写下了一首永恒的诗歌：

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the mornings' first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation
Then conquer we must when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

这首诗，成为了美国国歌的歌词。

麦克亨利堡门票：

$7/16岁+成人，16岁以下免票，美国国家公园年票持有者可以免4名成人的门票（在访客中心领取贴纸作为进入景点的凭证）。

下一篇：华盛顿--慕尼黑：汉莎航空A330-300