On New Year's Eve, all eyes turn to New York City and Times Square, where an estimated million revelers are expected to gather and "watch the ball drop" to ring in 2015.
Even organizers have been busy testing the shining 11,875 lbs. Waterford crystal ball at the top of the One Times Square building.
"You certainly don't want to screw it up when you have a billion people watching," said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance.
At 11:59 p.m., the ball, with its 2,700 crystal triangles illuminated by more than 30,000 LED lights, will begin its 60-second descent of around 70 feet to meet up with a large "2015" sign that will be illuminated at the stroke of midnight.
An estimated 1 billion television viewers around the globe will watch the traditional ushering in of the New Year.
A celebration of New Year's Eve with festivities in Times Square goes back to 1904, but it was 1907 when the first New Year's Eve ball made a maiden descent down a flagpole atop One Times Square.
Since then, there have been seven versions of the celebratory ball.
That first 1907 ball was 5 feet in diameter, constructed of iron and wood and covered with a hundred 25-watt light bulbs.
The ball drop became an annual affair, missing out only in 1942 and 1943 during World War II "dimouts" of the city's lights.
The current ball, 12 feet in diameter, is a permanent fixture on its rooftop home and a year-round attraction in full public view shining above Times Square. It only does its famous "drop" on New Year's Eve.
Dropping a ball to mark time has a long history, with the first "time ball" being installed in 1833 above England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
That ball was lowered every day at 1 p.m., providing a signal that captains of nearby ships could use to set their chronometers, vital for navigation.
For the Times Square festivities, a thousand extra NYPD patrol officers will be on hand for crowd control and to watch for any signs of trouble, officials said.
"Times Square is probably the safest place in New York City on New Year's Eve," said NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill.
In addition to the televised Times Square celebration, the dropping of the ball can be watched online, with a number of outlets offering live streaming of the event.
An official webcast will be hosted at https://www.ustream.tv/2015.
