The History of the Times Square New Years Ball Drop

Let’s close out the year with something educational. Here’s a quick history of a New York tradition that most Real New Yorkers don’t follow: The ball drop on New Year’s Eve. If you’re a native, or a fairly recent transplant, you’ve been to Times Square to see it once - and only once. Real New Yorkers Know there are better ways to start the new year than being surrounded by loud, drunken tourists in freezing temperatures, with no bathrooms anywhere nearby.

Still, it’s a city tradition that goes way back. New York was a major port for most of its history, and a common sight in major ports were “time-balls.” These timekeeping tools gave ship captains visual information about time, which helped them navigate. Every day, a time-ball would drop at exactly 1pm; captains would set their chronometers accordingly. The system was invented by scientists at England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833, and spread around the world.

In 1904, the New York Times convinced city officials to name a square in front of their building after their paper. Longacre Square became Times Square, and to celebrate the Times hosted a huge New Year’s party there. They continued the tradition in 1906, and in 1907 they decided to jazz things up. For that year’s bash, a gigantic time-ball was built on the roof of the New York Times Building at One Times Square. The ball would drop at midnight, to note the exact moment when 1907 became 1908. Revellers loved it so much that the Times continued doing it every year after until they moved further uptown in 1917. When they declined to continue dropping the ball, city government decided to continue the tradition & took it over. This made it the single largest officially-sponsored party in the world.

Since then, the local tradition has grown into a national, then international, event. By some estimates, one billion people watch the ball drop on TV each year. It’s become one of the big kick-offs for New Year’s festivities around the world. We recommend you experience it once — but only once, unless getting arrested for public urination is your thing.

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