It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2024 and hello to 2025.

All eyes will be on Times Square in the heart of New York City as thousands gather to celebrate the start of the New Year as the countdown begins and the ball drops.

The famous ball is a dazzling geodesic sphere — weighing nearly 6 tons and containing 2,688 crystal triangles — that runs up and down a 139-foot-tall pole atop the One Times Square skyscraper.

On Tuesday evening, 3,000 pounds of colorful paper that will fill the air at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Some of these pieces will contain wishes written by people before 2025.

“Here in New York City, this is the hub of the entire planet,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said early Monday as he and law enforcement officials discussed their security plans at the ceremony. “People are tuning in and celebrating in different locations as we countdown to the New Year.”

A New Year’s Eve ball has been held in Times Square for nearly 120 years, with the exception of 1942 and 1943, when nightly “dimouts” were held during World War II to protect the city from attack.

Here’s how to watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve

NBC New York will once again provide a live stream of the events in Times Square and the Ball Drop at midnight on your favorite streaming service’s streaming channel NBC 4 New York, on YouTube and in the video player above.

Reporting lasts from 6:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m

Things to know about the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop

To impress your guests, here are some interesting facts about the famous New Year’s Eve tradition, according to the official Times Square website.

• The ball is 12 feet in diameter and weighs 11,875 pounds.
• It is covered in more than 2,600 crystal triangles, with each sparkling pattern representing a different virtue: love, wisdom, happiness, benevolence, harmony, serenity, kindness, wonder, strength and imagination.
• The New Year’s Eve Ball was first held in 1907 and welcomed the year 1908, although the celebrations in Times Square began at least three years earlier.
• The first ball was made of iron, wood and light bulbs.
• The ball has been lowered every year since, with the exception of 1942 and 1943, during New York City’s wartime “dimout,” a method of defense during World War II.
• “Time Balls” precede the New Year’s Eve tradition in Times Square. Balls have been “dropped” since at least the 1830s at England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where a ball was dropped each day at a set hour so that captains could adjust their navigational instruments.

TODAY’s Maddie Ellis contributed to this story.