Federal Hill takes its name from the raucous party it hosted in May 1788. To celebrate Maryland's ratification of the Constitution, 4000 people paraded around Baltimore, led by Commodore Joshua Barney, a Revolutionary War hero. Wealthy Baltimoreans such as William Goddard, editor-in-chief of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, provided vast quantities of meat, beer, and brandy for the revelers. Bonfires and firework displays lit up the city. A 15-foot ship model named the Federalist was put on wheels, brought up onto the hill, and finally sent sailing with Commodore Barney down the Potomac River to Mount Vernon, where it was given to George Washington. Today, the hill is a public park offering panoramic views of the Baltimore skyline.

Dedicated in 1917, this monument honors Major General Samuel Smith (1752-1839), commander of American forces against the British during the Battle of Baltimore. The battle raged from September 12th to 15th in 1814 and resulted in a decisive American victory while forcing the British to withdraw from the region. The monument features a stone base with a statue of Smith standing on top overlooking the inner harbor. His name and a short description of his achievements are inscribed in the base. In addition to serving in the military, Smith was also the ninth mayor of Baltimore. He also served in the Maryland House of Delegates, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.

This memorial commemorates the Pride of Baltimore, a replica topsail schooner vessel that was tragically lost in the Caribbean Sea on May 14, 1986. The captain and three crew members died in the incident; eight survived. It was built in 1977 as part of the project to revitalize the inner harbor and to represent the city and state during its travels around the world. It sailed more than 150,000 nautical miles, visiting ports in the Great Lakes, the east and west coasts of North America, Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Sea. A second vessel, the Pride of Baltimore II, was built in 1988 to replace the lost vessel and so far it has logged over 250,000 nautical miles.

William Donald Schaefer (1921-2011) was a dominant and controversial force in local and state politics for over fifty years, serving as Baltimore mayor from 1971-1987 and as Maryland governor from 1987-1995. He was also the comptroller of Maryland from 1999-2007. A lifelong Democrat, Schaefer won every election he ran in except his reelection bid to be comptroller. He was credited for overseeing Baltimore's revitalization during his time as mayor but was also criticized by some for his leadership style and priorities which to some seemed more focused on economic development than reducing poverty and crime. This statue of Schaefer on the Baltimore waterfront was erected in 2009, two years before his death.

McKeldin Plaza is named after Republican politician Theodore R. McKeldin (1900-1974), who served two terms as mayor of Baltimore (1943-1947; 1963-1967) and two terms as the governor of Maryland (1951-1959). McKeldin first proposed the idea of developing the inner harbor in 1963 to help attract tourists and revitalize the city. He was known for supporting the city's African American community and the Civil Rights movement, leading the effort to build the Baltimore-Washington Airport and the Baltimore Civic Center, and delivering the nomination speech for Dwight D. Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago. The plaza was built in 1982 and originally had a large water fountain, which was eventually removed in 2016 as part of a plan to redesign the plaza.

USS Constellation, constructed in 1854, is a sloop-of-war and the second of several United States Navy ships to carry the name Constellation (The first was a frigate that was completed in 1797 and was disassembled in 1853). This second ship, a sloop, was constructed shortly thereafter and served the Union Navy in the Civil War. Despite being a single-gundeck sloop, the Constellation is actually larger than the original frigate that served the Early Republic. This ship holds a special piece of history because it is the last surviving sail-only warship to be designed and built by the US Navy. Currently resting in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor—it was moved from Boston to Baltimore in 1955—the USS Constellation offers self-guided and guided tours to the public. In addition to being part of the Historic Ships of Baltimore, the USS Constellation is also a National Historic Landmark and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historic Ships in Baltimore is a maritime museum that resulted from a merger between the USS Constellation Museum and the Baltimore Maritime Museum. The museum's impressive collection includes four ships and a lighthouse: USS Constellation (1854), USCGC Taney (WHEC-37), USS Torsk (SS-423), Chesapeake, and a screw-pile lighthouse called the Seven Foot Knoll Light. These ships comprise many facets of maritime shipbuilding, including a sloop-of-war, a Coast Guard cutter, a WWII-era submarine, and a lightship, respectively. The ships and the lighthouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Three of the ships, including the lightship, the sloop-of-war, and the cutter, are also National Historic Landmarks.

Shipyard workers constructed the USS Torsk (SS-423) at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, in 1944. The submarine then served in the United States Navy for 24 years, and then it was a Naval Reserve Trainer in Washington, DC for three years. Today, the submarine is a museum and attraction in the Inner Harbor. Tourists flock to the submarine because it is one of two surviving Tench class Fleet Submarines in the United States.

The National Aquarium houses over 750 aquatic species and 2,200,000 gallons of water. Over 1.5 million people visit the aquarium each year to see dolphins, sharks, and other exotic species. The National Aquarium is not only a tourist attraction but also an organization that promotes conservation. Its main purpose is to inspire conservation of the world’s aquatic treasures. Many of these aquatic treasures are native species of Maryland because one of the aquarium’s main goals is to promote conservation in the adjacent Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Originally built in 1856, the Seven Foot Knoll Light was the first "screw-pile" lighthouse erected in Maryland and is one of only four of its kind remaining in Chesapeake Bay. The cast-iron structure featured a fourth order Fresnel lens and was located on a shoal at the mouth of the Patapsco River. It is now on Pier 5 in the inner harbor and a part of an outdoor museum called the Historic Ships in Baltimore, which includes four historic vessels. The light is open to the public and features artifacts on display such as the bell from the SS Danville and navigational instruments. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Established as the Maryland Museum of African American History and Culture in 1998, this museum is named in honor of Baltimore business leader Reginald F. Lewis, the first Africna American to build and lead a Wall Street law firm. Together with a five million dollar donation from Lewis, funds from the state of Maryland, and donations form indiviudals and organizations throughout, the museum opened its current facility in 2005. Highlights of the museum include three galleries that preserve and share the history and contributions of African Americans in Baltimore. The institution also operates a resource center and offers monthly programs that include lectures, musical performances, and educational events for all ages.

The Port Discovery Children’s Museum’s works to educate children and instill a life-long love of curiosity and learning new things. Permanent exhibitions include Adventure Expeditions, Harvest Hill, and Miss Perception’s Mystery House. The museum traces its roots to 1976, when the city created a children's museum within the Cloisters. In 1990, the organization became an independent non-profit and merged with the Maryland Children’s Museum. The new organization completed a $35 million fundraising campaign, acquiring the last remaining structure of Baltimore's historic Centre Market which dates back to 1904. The new museum opened in 1998 and continues to serve as an anchor of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Located at the intersection of Lombard and Gay Streets, the Baltimore Holocaust Memorial is the result of two decades of work by Baltimore residents who raised funds and secured public support for this powerful reminder of six million men, women, and children who were killed in extermination camps operated by the Nazi regime during WWII. The design of this memorial reflects the literal meaning of the word Holocaust as destruction by fire. It also reflects the techniques used by the executioners, as the statue portrays the emaciated bodies of victims in a ball of flame. Though quite startling, the memorial's supporters hoped that the design would support their message of remembrance. The base of the sculpture features the famous words of George Santayana, “Those who do not remember the past are destined to repeat it.” In addition to their work in creating the memorial, the designers of the Holocaust Memorial Park use a variety of images to communicate remembrance as a civic duty. On each side of the central walkway triangle, visitors can find 1940s vintage railroad tracks symbolizing the vast railway system that transported millions of victims to their deaths. A Black fence borders one edge of the park to evoke the aura of a concentration camp, and quotes by Holocaust survivor and author, Primo Levi, are inscribed on the sides of two massive, cantilevered concrete blocks.

The Custom House was built at the very beginning of the 20th century in Beaux-Arts style and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. On October 27th, 1967, Philip Berrigan and Tom Lewis, later to be part of the Catonsville Nine action, were joined by David Eberhardt and James Mengel, in an act of civil disobedience that saw them labeled as “The Baltimore Four”. At the time the Customs House was home to the Baltimore Selective Service, and the four men entered and poured blood (a combination of their own blood and animal blood) onto draft records in protest of the Vietnam War. “We shed our blood willingly and gratefully in what we hope is a sacrificial and constructive act. We pour it upon these files to illustrate that with them and with these offices begins the pitiful waste of American and Vietnamese blood” - Statement of the Baltimore Four (The Catonsville Nine, Peters).