(Photo by Andy Katz/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio marches in the 2016 Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.(NEW YORK) — New York City will hold its 256th Saint Patrick’s Day Parade on Friday morning and the city is working hard to prepare.
Following this week’s snowstorm, sanitation crews spent Thursday moving huge piles of snow and ice into a melting machine, hoping to clear intersections and swaths of Fifth Avenue.
The city expects 150,000 marchers on Friday, and as many as two million spectators.
Security is expected to be on alert Friday, in similar fashion to the levels it was for the Thanksgiving Day Parade and for New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Sand trucks and other vehicles will be placed at intersections to prevent rogue vehicles from entering the parade route.
Mayor Bill de Blasio will march in the parade, which he had boycotted until last year, when gay and lesbian groups were allowed to participate. The honorary grand marshal will be Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health.
In a first, the parade will march past the home of the sitting president — Trump Tower. Spectators will not be allowed to watch from the sidewalk across from the building, and 57th Street will be closed until the parade passes.
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