NEW YORK: More than a million people in New York’s Times Square hailed the arrival of 2016 early Friday with cheers and a measure of relief as America’s biggest New Year’s Eve celebration unfolded without a hitch under a blanket of unprecedented security.
The transition to the new year was marked by the descent of the traditional lighted crystal ball from atop a skyscraper amid fireworks and a blizzard of confetti at the center of the famed Manhattan crossroads, the climax of an annual rite of winter dating back to 1904.
With memories of the deadly attacks in Paris and California still fresh, police took extraordinary measures to ensure security at a gathering that has come to define the New York experience for many visitors to the largest US city.
But the event, broadcast live on national television, went off without a hint of trouble, as a festive mood prevailed despite — or perhaps because of — the heavy police presence.
“This is the center of the world on New Year’s Eve,” said Rick Milley, 60, who traveled from Boston with his wife, Debbie, 59, to ring in the new year in Times Square.
“This was on our bucket list,” Debbie Milley said as the couple took pictures of themselves using a selfie stick.
The pair have spent the holiday in New York before but never before in Times Square, a year-round tourist draw, filled with chain stores, family restaurants and flashy advertising displays.
About 6,000 uniformed and undercover police officers, 500 more than last year, patrolled the area, with the force bolstered by mounted patrols, bomb-sniffing dogs, radiation detectors and hundreds of surveillance cameras.
As of 1 a.m. (0600 GMT), there were no reports of trouble at the event or any arrests, according to a New York City Police Department spokesman, Sergeant Brendan Ryan.
For the first time on a New Year’s Eve, the city deployed its new Critical Response Command, which includes more heavily armed officers. The unit is trained to detect and respond to attacks, such those in Paris that killed 130 people on Nov. 13, or the rampage in San Bernardino, California, in which 14 were slain.
The US Department of Homeland Security ranked the Times Square celebration as a level-2 concern on its five-point scale of security risks for major public events.
The famous New Year’s Eve ball, which is 12 feet (3.6 meters) in diameter and weighs nearly 6 tons, descended on a pole mounted on top of One Times Square, a narrow wedge of a building along 42nd Street at the southern end of the square.
Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed the button that began the descent, leading to the 60-second countdown to midnight, when a giant illuminated “2016” sign flashed on, signaling the beginning of the new year.
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