Times Square is the New Year’s Eve ball-drop location in New York City.
The square lies in Midtown Manhattan at the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, close to 42nd Street. It was previously known as Longacre Square, but it was renamed Times Square in 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly developed Times Building, now One Times Square.
The first ball drop took place there on New Year’s Eve in 1907. The event soon became a major public spectacle, and the square’s bright electric signs helped establish its reputation as a symbolic center of New York entertainment and commercial life.
Times Square is sometimes called “the Crossroads of the World,” but that nickname is not the name of the celebration site. The ball drops from One Times Square, a building at the southern end of the square. The location and the descending object are related but distinct answers: Times Square is the place, while the Times Square Ball is the object.