Having a Ball: See Photos of the Times Square New Year’s Ball Through History
Having a Ball: See Photos of the Times Square New Year’s Ball Through History
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Technicians eye the new improved New Years ball, with halogen lamps for greater visibility, in New York City in 1978.Chester Higgins Jr.—The New York Times/Redux
It’s been over a century since the New Year’s Eve Ball was first dropped, in 1907, in New York City’s Times Square. According to the Times Square Alliance, the first-ever ball was a metal-and-wood orb that clocked it at 700 lbs. Since then, it’s gone through several iterations, with the current ball — known as the Big Ball — clocking in at nearly 12,000 lbs. of LED lights and Waterford Crystal facets.
The location, TIME declared in 1988, is a meaningful one: “Americans’ emblematic visions of their country incline toward the arcadian — cabins in a peaceable countryside, a small town with no entertainment wilder than a Sousa band in the park. But in this century, as the U.S. became an urban nation, New York City‘s Times Square emerged as a different sort of American apotheosis. Times Square exemplified a certain idea of the city carried to its frenetic extreme: a few blocks dense with too many lights and too much action, a happy chaos of honky-tonk night life (the Florodora girls, Legs Diamond’s Hotsy Totsy Club), theatrical bliss (Barrymore’s Hamlet, the Marx Brothers) and the spontaneous razzmatazz of the rialto,” wrote Kurt Andersen. “There was a civic side as well: Times Square became the natural New York place for jubilation en masse, every New Year‘s Eve and every time America won a war.”
A live webcast of this year’s ball drop will begin at 6:00 Eastern on Wednesday.
Technicians eye the new improved New Years ball, with halogen lamps for greater visibility, in New York City in 1978. Chester Higgins Jr.—The New York Times/ReduxNew York City Mayor Ed Koch gives the thumbs up sign as he flips a switch to test the Big Apple Ball on Dec. 24, 1981 in New York City. Marty Lederhandler—APJason Samuels, an electrician with signmaker Artkraft Strauss, checks the connections on a lighted ball at the company's shop in New York City, Dec. 22, 1994. Jon Simon—APTimes Square Business Improvement District President Brendan Sexton, left, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, second from left, actor and Chairman of New York City 2000 Ron Silver, right rear, and President of Countdown Entertainment Jeffrey A. Straus, right, make a toast at a press conference in New York City on, Dec. 28, 1998. Marty Lederhandler—APThe New York Times Square Ball sits atop 1 Times Square during its test lighting in preparation for the Times Square 2000 celebration, Dec. 30, 1999. Timothy A. Clary—AFP/Getty ImagesPeter Gravagna (L), Raymond Nieves (C) and Felix Ortega (R), of Landmark Signs, install light bulbs on the New Year's Eve Ball in New York City on Dec. 28, 2001. Stan Honda—AFP/Getty ImagesWorkers test a giant 1,070-pound, six-foot diameter Waterford Crystal ball, in New York City on Dec. 30, 2003. Jeff Christensen—ReutersA workman installs one of 72 new Waterford Crystal triangles, featuring the "Hope for Fellowship" design, on the exterior of the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball in New York City on Dec. 28, 2005. Stan Honda—AFP/Getty ImagesThe New Year's Eve Ball is displayed at the Macy's Store in Herald Square before moving to Times Square for New Years celebrations, in New York City on Nov. 5, 2008. Jeff Zelevansky—Getty ImagesThe Waterford Crystal ball in place and ready for the New Year's celebration in New York City on Dec. 30, 2009. Ozier Muhammad—The New York Times/ReduxFireworks explode as the Waterford crystal ball is raised at the beginning of Times Square New Year's celebration in New York City on Dec. 31, 2012.Mary Altaffer—APA view of the general atmosphere at the 2014 New Year's Eve Philips Ball Test at One Times Square in New York City on Dec. 30, 2013.Desiree Navarro—WireImage/Getty Imges
