City Dock and Ego Alley

City Dock is where Annapolis begins and ends for most visitors. The small basin at the foot of Main Street has served as the town's harbor since colonial days, when tobacco ships loaded here and enslaved Africans were brought ashore. Today it is a lively public space framed by brick sidewalks, restaurants, ice cream stands and boats of every size. The narrow channel of water that reaches into town is nicknamed Ego Alley, because captains of gleaming yachts and motorboats love to cruise slowly up and back while onlookers admire them. On a summer evening the whole waterfront becomes a stage, and watching the parade with a drink or a crab cake in hand is a classic Annapolis pleasure. The square at the head of the dock holds the Market House, a long-standing food hall, and the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, which marks the 1767 arrival of the ship that carried the author's ancestor. The memorial uses sculpture, a map and inscriptions to place Annapolis in the history of the transatlantic slave trade, and it is a thoughtful counterpoint to the cheerful boating scene around it. Take a few minutes to read the plaques and to walk to the water's edge.

The best way to enjoy City Dock is to treat it as a place to linger rather than a sight to tick off. Arrive in the early morning when delivery trucks and joggers have the brick lanes to themselves, or come at sunset when the boats and the lights on the water make the most memorable scene.

In summer, live music and festivals can fill the square, and weekend crowds are heavy. Watch the Alley from a bench near the bridge over Compromise Street, or from a table at one of the restaurants whose windows look onto the boats.

Several walking tours and cruises begin or end at City Dock, which makes it a natural base. Harbor cruises, water taxis in season and sailing outings tie up nearby, and the walk to the State House takes about ten minutes up the hill. Across the little bridge lies Eastport and the Maritime Museum, a short stroll away. Because the area floods slightly in unusual high tides and storm surges, locals sometimes see water in the square; this is a quirk of the harbor rather than a reason to avoid it.

Think of the dock as a living history lesson as well as a social scene. The same water that now carries pleasure boats once carried hogsheads of tobacco, rum, sugar and people, and the tidy brick warehouses behind the restaurants began as commercial buildings. Annapolis claims the title of sailing capital of the United States, and you can feel why here: masts line the creeks on both sides, sailing schools and charters operate from nearby docks, and the United States Sailboat Show, usually held in autumn, turns the whole waterfront into a floating exhibition.

Even outside show season the place has a lively, nautical air that rewards a slow walk.