Watch New Year’s Eve Countdown Online

According to ABC News, at least one million people are expected to be in New York City’s Times Square to watch the ball drop on Thursday night.

About 6,000 uniformed police officers, 500 more than past year, and undercover officers are expected to patrol the area with bomb-sniffing dogs and radiation detectors. New York’s 2016 celebration is set to include performances from rapper Wiz Khalifa and country singers Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood, with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper among the hosts helping the crowd usher in the New Year.

The first partygoers arrived in the famed intersection around sunrise, prepared to camp in place until midnight.

Last week, President Obama was briefed by security officials about possible attacks during the holiday season that focused on New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC.

By early evening, crowds organised into neat pens formed by police barricades stretched for many blocks up Seventh Avenue and Broadway north of One Times Square.

Dozens of law enforcement officials gazed at hundreds of monitors in NYPD headquarters Thursday night, keeping an eye on video feeds, news reports and crime maps ahead of the New Year’s ball dropping at midnight.

The famous New Year’s Eve ball, which is 12 feet (3.6 meters) in diameter and weighs almost 6 tons, descends 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.

Brian Peckbur, left, kisses his girlfriend Deobra Dubois, both from Tampa, Fla., as they ring in the new year at Times Square, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016, in NY. They have been empowered to shut down the event at any time and evacuate the area if necessary.

New York City’s police commissioner admits New York remains the world’s top terrorist target, but he says there’s no credible threat against the New Year’s Eve celebrations. In addition to the swarms of police on the ground, officers kept watch over the crowd via security cameras, beaming images into a command center at police headquarters.

USA cities welcome 2016, except Rochester, NY Most of the U.S. joined the rest of the world in welcoming 2016 in style. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. We know how to do big events.