Here, at the highest reach of the Patapsco River, most things are about, near or within sight of water. Pleasure boats float next to red brick promenades. Alfresco diners dawdle over coffee and inhale briny breezes. Armadas of kid-powered paddleboats lurch toward shore. Lines of eager pedestrians snake onto historic sailing vessels.
Weary tourists drop their feet toward the water and gape as the sun dives behind silver skyscrapers.
Before 1980, the Inner Harbor was hardly a leisure destination. When the area around the present-day Inner Harbor was first settled in the early 1700s, the water there was shallow and inhospitable to boat traffic. But resourceful merchants built long piers that extended to navigable waters, and soon watermelons and bananas, grains and livestock, tobacco and oysters began trading hands. Suddenly, Baltimore was a bustling seaport. In the 1800s, the Inner Harbor became a mecca for paddle wheel steamboats.