Inner Harbor District (Baltimore, Maryland)

 district, neighborhood, draw only border

The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as “the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world.”

While Baltimore has been a major U.S. seaport since the 18th century, the historically shallow water of the Inner Harbor (prior to manipulation through dredging) was not conducive to large ships or heavy industry, most of which was concentrated in Locust Point, Fell's Point, and Canton. In the mid-20th century, Baltimore suffered from economic decline common to industrial cities. Old harbors were abandoned with the arrival of container ships after World War II. The waterfront was gradually transformed with award-winning parks and plazas surrounded by office buildings, hotels and leisure attractions, which reversed the city's decline and became a model for urban renaissance in cities around the world. With the success of the Inner Harbor in the 1970s and '80s, Baltimore became a worldwide tourist destination and model of urban planning and development.