BALTIMORE — A construction crew working at Fort McHenry stumbled upon a potentially dangerous piece of history.
A Baltimore Police hazardous device unit, a Baltimore City Fire Department hazmat unit and Air Force explosive ordinance specialists were called to the historic fortification after what was described as potentially explosive historical ordinance was found on Friday, The Washington Post reported.
Workers “unearthed what appears to be an older bomb or explosive device,” the Baltimore Police Department said in a statement.
The item was later described as a cannonball.
Officials with the police, fire department and military worked together to render the device safe, WMAR reported.
It was removed from the area by late Friday night.
The fort was closed as part of the standard procedures when the item was found.
“Because Fort McHenry served as a military installation for more than a century, these types of discoveries are not uncommon,” a park spokesperson told the Post via email.
The fort was not only where the “Star Spangled Banner” flew during the War of 1812, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the poem in 1814 that would become our national anthem, but it was also a defensive fortification during the Civil War.
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