Revelers gather in New York's Times Square to usher in 2012

Police began closing off streets around New York's Times Square on Saturday in anticipation of 1 million revelers crowding in to send off a year marked by a grim anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the city and give a boisterous welcome to 2012.

The highlight of the night was to be the lowering of a large lighted crystal ball for the last minute of the old year - a tradition started in 1907. (Reuters)