Baltimore [ a ] is the most populous city in the U. With a population of , at the census , it is the 30th-most populous US city. It is the most populous independent city in the nation. As of [update] , the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was 2,,, the 20th-largest metropolitan area in the country.
The land that is present-day Baltimore was used as hunting ground by Paleo-Indians. In the early s, the Susquehannock began to hunt there. During the American Revolutionary War , the Second Continental Congress , fleeing Philadelphia prior to its fall to British troops , moved their deliberations to Henry Fite House on West Baltimore Street from December , to February , permitting Baltimore to serve briefly as the nation's capital , before it returned to Philadelphia in March The Battle of Baltimore was pivotal during the War of , culminating in the failed British bombardment of Fort McHenry , during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that would become " The Star-Spangled Banner ", designated as the national anthem in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , the nation's oldest, was built in and cemented Baltimore's status as a transportation hub, giving producers in the Midwest and Appalachia access to the city's port.
Baltimore's Inner Harbor was the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the US and a major manufacturing center. Johns Hopkins Hospital and University are the top employers.
Many Baltimore neighborhoods have rich histories. Baltimore has more public statues and monuments per capita than any other city in the country. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC , when Paleo-Indians first settled in the region. The finding followed a period of dormancy in Baltimore City archaeological findings which had persisted since the s.
In the early s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was sparsely populated, if at all, by Native Americans. The Baltimore County area northward was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock living in the lower Susquehanna River valley. This Iroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region " and south into Virginia.
