Flag Day Commemorated At Fort McHenry

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- It wasn't just a celebration of the bicentennial on Thursday. It was also Flag Day, and that holds a special meaning for many.

Meghan McCorkell was at Fort McHenry as crowds honored history.

It was an emotional commemoration as Americans here in Baltimore and all over the country stopped to remember.

The stars and stripes proudly wave over Fort McHenry as they did nearly 200 years ago.

"It's awesome. It's just our history," said one person.

To honor our nation, the crowds paused for the Pledge of Allegiance.

"I think it's everybody just respecting America," Paige Bathus from New Jersey said.

"It kind of gives you goosebumps. It does!" Mary Bathus from New Jersey said.

The celebration of Flag Day is even more meaningful at the place where so much history was made.

"It's called a shrine. The people gave their lives so that we can still be free," John Butler of the American Flag Foundation said.

"To feel the goosebumps, and to feel how the people fought for us to be here," Kelly Prihoda of Baltimore said.

And the flag, flying high in the breeze here over Fort McHenry, isn't the only historic flag in town on Thursday.

Found in the wreckage of the World Trade Center, the 9/11 flag has been patched together.

"The ashes from all those people who were killed in the World Trade Center are residing in these threads of the flag," Veronica Christensen, who sewed threads of the original Star-Spangled Banner onto the national 9/11 flag.

Now, threads from the original Star-Spangled Banner that flew during the War of 1812 are added to the 9/11 flag in its final patch.

As dusk approaches at Fort McHenry, the crowds helped fold the symbol of our country. The flag is set to be raised once again on Friday.

Another celebration of the American flag will be held at Fort McHenry on Saturday night. It will include concerts and fireworks.