Travel Guide Baltimore

Baltimore is truly in the suburbs near D.C., it will only take you 40 minutes by train from Washington to get there and less than an hour and a quarter by car (depending on traffic congestion). Once there, there are two essential things to do: go to the beautiful Walters Museum and sit around a plate of crab cakes. Baltimore has long been trying to make people forget that it is one of the most dangerous cities in the United States (hence the nickname Charm City, which local advertisers used in the 1970s to restore its image). Certainly, he still has a lot of work to do to achieve this, and if some areas are still to be avoided today, it is pleasant and a priori safe to walk in the neighbourhoods around Downtown: Federal Hill, Harbor Inn, Fell's Point, Little Italy and, further north, Mount Vernon. The city is located on the shores of Chesapeake Bay and is a good starting point for exploring it.HistoryThe city owes its name to the founder of the colony, Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Baltimore has always been a major port and industrial centre in the northeast, comparable to New York and Philadelphia. There are many metallurgical industries (shipyards, oil refineries, car and aircraft manufacturing). Baltimore has been independent since its separation from the homonymous county in 1851. Until then, it was the second most populated city in the United States. The poet Edgar Allen Poe lived and became famous there thanks to his Manuscript found in a bottle, Franck Zappa was born there in 1840 as well as Barry Levinson (director of Good Morning Vietnam and Rain Man) and John Waters (Hairspray), and jazz singer Billie Holiday was raised there.