NEW YORK – Dropping a ball would seem to be so simple. Let go, and let gravity do the work.

But this is Times Square, where even the most mundane act inspires a razzle-dazzle-“em mentality. And so it is that the 100th anniversary of New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square involves nuclear physics, 600 specially made lightbulbs and a cross-dresser.

The first New Year’s Eve celebration here 100 years ago was a relatively modest affair. The New York Times had opened a new building at the site, and what had been Longacre Square quickly was renamed Times Square. Times publisher Adolph Ochs threw a New Year’s Eve party there with fireworks. Times Square soon replaced City Hall as the place to go on Dec. 31.

The combination of fireworks and large crowds bothered the Fire Department, so Ochs began looking for a safer way to celebrate. In 1907, he borrowed an idea from Western Union, which dropped an iron ball outside its office to mark noon every day. Such balls were part of a worldwide system that helped sailors know what time it was before onboard clocks were perfected.

It wasn’t long before Times Square – which is shaped like a bowtie, not a square – became known as the crossroads of the world. During the Depression, workers marched for jobs there.

When the Times news “zipper” flashed, “TRUMAN ANNOUNCES JAPANESE SURRENDER,” in August 1945, two million people trooped to Times Square to celebrate. The photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the moment with his iconic image of an anonymous sailor and nurse kissing.

The countdown to this year’s ball-drop began Dec. 16, when Dame Edna, a cross-dresser now starring in her own Broadway show, pushed the button on the official clock. Every few days brings a new media event – the climbing of the 77-foot pole to install the rigging that holds the ball, the installation of the last of the 600 lightbulbs that adorn the ball.

The ball itself is aluminum, 6 feet in diameter, and weighs 1,070 pounds. About 500 Waterford crystals accentuate its lights.

“The ball is magical in itself,” said Jeffrey Straus, president of Countdown Entertainment, which coordinates the Times Square event.

Several thousand police will patrol, controlling a crowd expected to exceed 500,000. Fifty people stand on rooftops, throwing 3,000 pounds of confetti by hand.

The Times Square Alliance spends $1 million on the event, some from its operating budget – raised from fees paid by area businesses – and some from sponsorship, like this year’s from Discover Card. That cost does not include overtime for police and sanitation workers; the city does not release that figure.

Secretary of State Powell will push the button that starts the final countdown. The pushing of the button, however, is merely for show. A computer-controlled electronic motor and winch lower the ball – which is synchronized with an atomic clock in Colorado, to make sure the ball reaches the bottom of the pole on time.

“Gravity,” Straus joked. “God forbid!”

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(c) 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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AP-NY-12-30-04 1923EST