It would drop over Times Square for the first time on New Year's Eve 1907. That first ball was six feet in diameter, made of iron and wood, weighed 700 pounds, and contained 100 lightbulbs.

Times Square's biggest tourist draw is the annual New Year's Eve ball drop. Revelers crowd the area to see New York's famous Waterford crystal ball descend 77 feet from a pole on the One Times ...