Times Square Ball Drop: The Story of the New Year’s Eve Tradition

Each year on December 31 at one minute before midnight (Eastern Standard Time), people from around the world welcome the new year when the shimmering 12,300-pound crystal Waterford ball drops slowly into Times Square.

As in most years, this year an estimated one million people are expected to be in Times Square, thought of as the “center of the universe” for this night. An audience of a billion more people are expected to watch via television or live-stream directly to their phones or other devices.

This year’s ball is a new one—the ninth iteration known as the “Constellation Ball.” It weighs more than 12,300 pounds and is covered with 5280 crystal discs (double the crystals used formerly). The discs are in three sizes and placed carefully to enhance the sparkle.  The ball is lighted by 32,256 Philips Luxeon LED lights.

The Double Drop

To kick off America’s 250^th birthday (the Semiquncentennial) there will be what is being called the “Double Drop.” At approximately 12:04 AM on January 1st, the ball will be relit in a unique red, white, and blue America 250 design. It will rise up the pole as pyrotechnics are set off to the playing of Ray Charles’s “America the Beautiful.” Those in Times Square will be showered with 2000 lbs of red, white, and blue confetti.

And for the first time in the 120-year tradition, the ball will make a second appearance. On July 3 at 12 midnight, the ball will drop in celebration of the Semiquincentennial.

The Party Tradition Begins

The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square occurred in 1904, just after the New York Times relocated to a new building in what had then called Longacre Square. Publisher Adolph Ochs successfully pushed to rename the area for his newspaper. The triangular area where the new building sat at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway, and 42nd Streets has since that time has been known as Times Square.

That year Ochs wanted to celebrate the new location and he threw a huge all-day street festival capped off with a fireworks display that night. An estimated 200,000 people were said to be in attendance.

Up until this time, many New Yorkers celebrated the new year at Trinity Church with the ringing of the bells. With Ochs sponsoring festivities in Times Square, customs changed, and Times Square was the place to be.

A few years later the city banned the use of fireworks. That led to the creation of a new tradition using lights. At the end of 1905, the “1905” lights were configured to read “1906.” These electric lights flashed from the tower of the Times building, reportedly visible from miles away. The Times tower was also festooned with electric streamers that lit the building’s four corners.

The Idea for the Ball Drop

The idea of a ball drop was first used by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. In 1833, the Observatory installed a ball at the highest point in Greenwich Park. At 1 p.m. each day, the ball dropped to mark the time and allow the captains of nearby ships to set their chronometers. (When the telegraph was invented, telegraphers communicated the exact time to ships and businesses that could not see the ball drop.)

This tradition is the one mimicked by the dropping of the ball in Times Square.

The First Times Square Ball

The first ball made for Times Square was iron and wood and weighed 700 pounds; it featured light from one hundred 25-watt light bulbs. It was made by an immigrant metalworker whose company, Artkraft Strauss, took responsibility for the creation and dropping of the ball for most of the 20th century.

The ball must have been ordered during much more optimistic times. By the time it arrived for its use in 1907, its introduction was met with little joy and less fanfare. The “Bankers Crisis” occurred in October of 1907, causing a 50 percent drop in stocks at the New York Stock Exchange and leading to the spread of a nationwide recession.

There was no central bank to avert the disaster, and there was little public feeling of optimism in late December. (The following year, Congress undertook a study of the country’s financial structure that led to the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank.)

As a result, that first drop of the Times Square ball was met by a subdued crowd. The New York Times put a decent face on it with its report: “The dropping of the illuminated ball on the tower of The Times was awaited by an expectant crowd with upturned faces. The square was thronged. As the ball dropped on the stroke of twelve an involuntary cheer arose from many thousands.” (NYT 1-2-1908)

Ball Drop Cancelled Twice

During World War II, the United States was adhering to a wartime “dimout” to prevent enemy forces calculating where people might gather.  As a result in 1942 and 1943, there was no ball drop.

The tradition was so strong, however, that people still gathered in Times Square. At midnight during those war years, a minute of silence was observed followed by the ringing of chimes from sound trucks parked in Times Square.

In 2021, the ball drop occurred but public officials barred the public from coming into Times Square. There were a few groups of invited first-responders who had been heroic in their actions during the pandemic. Otherwise, everything was staged to be virtual. The sentiment was that there were too many bodies in morgues across the country.

By this year, community life has returned to normal. Security is always high for these occasions, but there is little doubt that people enjoy gathering in Times Square — or watching via television or the Internet — to mark the beginning of a new year.

To read about why we sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve, click here.

Happy new year to you all.

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