Roughly 1 million revelers packed New York's Times Square and rang in the new year with the city's annual crystal ball drop under unusually tight security for the nation's biggest New Year's Eve celebrations.
While security is always tight in Times Square on New Year's Eve, particularly since the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, extra precautions were put in place on Wednesday to prevent violence at the famed Midtown Manhattan crossroads.
Hours before the giant crystal ball was to drop at midnight, bomb-sniffing dogs and counterterrorism units joined uniformed officers posted on the streets around Times Square.
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