At the place where Francis Scott Key saw the United States flag after the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, the flag flies day and night by order of the President. The unfurled flag answers Key’s question from “The Star-Spangled Banner,” inspired by the great flag flying over Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814. The original Star-Spangled Banner that Key saw is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore seamstress, made the huge wool flag in 1813, and it measured 30 x 42 feet. During the 1795-1818 period, the flag bore 15 stripes and 15 stars. In 1814 the garrison also kept a smaller 17 x 25 foot flag for stormy weather. Today park rangers keep flags of several sizes on hand and change them as weather conditions change, flying a full-size nylon replica when weather permits. On July 4, 1960, the United States fifty-star flag was officially flown for the first time anywhere from the flagstaff here. Today’s replica flagstaff, handmade in 1988 from Oregon Douglas-fir, stands on the same spot as the 1814 original and is similar in design. Key’s poem was later set to music and became the National Anthem.