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Times Square Ball

1907 establishments in New York CityAC with 0 elementsCulture of New York CityDecember eventsFestivals established in 1907
New Year in the United StatesRecurring events established in 1907Times SquareUse mdy dates from July 2019Winter traditions
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The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where the ball descends down a specially designed flagpole, beginning at 11:59:00 p.m. ET, and resting at midnight to signal the start of the new year. In recent years, the ball drop has been preceded by live entertainment, including performances by musicians. The event was first organized by Adolph Ochs, owner of The New York Times newspaper, as a successor to a series of New Year's Eve fireworks displays he held at the building to promote its status as the new headquarters of the Times, while the ball itself was designed by Artkraft Strauss. First held on December 31, 1907, to welcome 1908, the ball drop has been held annually since, except in 1942 and 1943 in observance of wartime blackouts. The ball's design has been updated over the years to reflect improvements in lighting technology; the ball was initially constructed from wood and iron, and lit with 100 incandescent light bulbs. Since 1999–2000, the ball has featured an outer surface consisting of triangular crystal panels (which contain inscriptions representing a yearly theme), and was redesigned for 2008 to use a computerized LED lighting system. Since 2009, the current ball has been displayed atop One Times Square year-round, while the original, smaller version of the current ball that was used in 2008 has been on display inside the Times Square visitor's center. The event is organized by the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, a company led by Jeff Strauss, and is among the most notable New Year's celebrations internationally: it is attended by at least 1 million spectators yearly, and is nationally televised as part of New Year's Eve specials broadcast by a number of networks and cable channels. The prevalence of the Times Square ball drop has inspired similar "drops" at other local New Year's Eve events across the country; while some use balls, some instead drop objects that represent local culture or history for the new year.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Times Square Ball (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Times Square Ball
Broadway, New York Manhattan

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Wikipedia: Times Square BallContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 40.7564 ° E -73.9865 °
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42nd Street–Times Square–Port Authority Bus Terminal

Broadway
10019 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
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One Times Square
One Times Square

One Times Square, also known as 1475 Broadway, the New York Times Building, the New York Times Tower, or simply as the Times Tower, is a 25-story, 363-foot-high (111 m) skyscraper, designed by Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz, located at 42nd Street and Broadway in New York City. Due to the large amount of revenue generated by its signage, One Times Square is considered one of the most valuable advertising locations in the world. The tower was originally built in 1903–1904 to serve as the headquarters of The New York Times, which moved into the tower in January 1904. The paper's owner persuaded the city to re-name the area "Times Square". Eight years later, the paper's offices moved to 229 West 43rd Street. One Times Square remained a major focal point of the area due to its annual New Year's Eve "ball drop" festivities and the introduction of a large lighted news ticker near street-level in 1928. Following its sale to Lehman Brothers in 1995, One Times Square was repurposed with advertising billboards on its facade to take advantage of its prime location within the square. One Times Square has been owned by Jamestown L.P. since 1997. Most of the building's interior remains vacant, aside from a Walgreens pharmacy which occupies its lower levels. In 2017, as part of One Times Square's redevelopment, plans were announced to construct a new Times Square museum, observation deck, and a new entrance to the Times Square–42nd Street subway station, construction of which began in 2019.

3 Times Square
3 Times Square

3 Times Square, also known as the Thomson Reuters Building, is a 30-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located on Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street, the building measures 555 feet (169 m) to its roof and 659 feet (201 m) to its spire. The building was designed by Fox & Fowle and developed by Rudin Management for news-media company Reuters. The site is owned by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, though Rudin and Reuters have a long-term leasehold on the building. Fox & Fowle planned a portion of the facade as a glass curtain wall, though the northeast corner and the south facade are made of masonry. The eastern facade has a curving curtain wall with a wedge atop the southeast corner, as well as a triple-height lobby facing Seventh Avenue. The building contains 855,000 square feet (79,400 m2) of floor space, much of which was originally taken by Reuters. The lowest three stories contain retail space and an entrance to the Times Square subway station. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Park Tower Realty and the Prudential Insurance Company of America had planned to develop a tower for the site as part of a wide-ranging redevelopment of West 42nd Street. After the successful development of the nearby 4 Times Square, Reuters proposed consolidating its headquarters at Times Square in 1997, enlisting Rudin Management as a development partner. Work started in 1998 and the building was completed in 2001, with Reuters occupying the vast majority of the space. The building was jointly owned by Reuters and Rudin for two decades, and a renovation of the interior was announced in 2021.