Thursday, January 2, 2014

History of the Ball Drop

Watch my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9hvb9fagbs

       The first Ball Drop to celebrate the New Year happened in 1908 in New York City’s Time Square. A firework celebration had been occurring since 1904, but it was too dangerous to continue shooting off primitive fireworks among the line of skyscrapers. As for the history of Times Square, it was first named “Longacre Square”, but the name changed to “Times Square” after the New York Times headquarters (called the “Times Tower”) was moved there. The tower was designed by Eidlitz and McKenzie and was at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway and 42nd Street. The old hopping center of NYC was Trinity Church (near Wall Street), but after the 1904 festivities, it was quickly forgotten. The first actual Ball Drop was in the winter of 1907-1908. The ball was designed by the ArtKraft Strauss Sign Company (so German!) and made of wood, iron, and weighed over 700 pounds! Also, there were 100 cutting edge lights attached to the outside too. The ball was dropped from the mast of the USS New Mexico, an American battleship. Today, the ball is made of 2,688 Waterford Crystals (a crystal manufacturer with its roots in Ireland) and LED light pockets. The ball weighs almost 12,000 pounds and creates over 16 million color combinations when lit fully. It still drops from the Times Tower (or One Times Square Building), which is also a premier location for advertising as well. Interestingly, the “Ball” even has a twitter account with quite a witty sense of humor linked here: https://twitter.com/timessquareball
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