An estimated three million people marveled over the 90th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday morning.

The world’s largest parade kicked off in Midtown around 9 a.m.

Among the first balloons to pass through the procession were a giant inflatable turkey and a larger than life Charlie Brown, which was one of three new balloons this year.

Thomas the Tank Engine soared through the sky, directly followed by the classic marching bands. Then, Ronald McDonald hovered over Central Park West.

No matter what age you are, you always feel like a kid standing among the crowds at one of the city’s biggest holiday celebrations, 1010 WINS’ Glenn Schuck reported. Costumed characters mingled with revelries and crowds cheered as clowns on bicycles rode by carrying bundles of balloons.
A total of 82 city sanitation trucks filled with sand and salt were used at intersections and other strategic spots along the parade route to create an imposing physical barrier to terror. The trucks weigh about 16 tons empty, and up to twice that with sand. While the trucks have been used like this before, most recently to protect Trump Tower, police said they played a bigger role at this year’s parade in the wake of the Bastille Day cargo truck attack in Nice, France, that killed more than 80 people, as well as a recent posting in an English-language Islamic State magazine that called the parade “an excellent target.”
The NYPD Counterterrorism Critical Response Command units were in place, with vapor wake dogs trained to detect explosives, and helicopters flew high above the balloons.
“We look at everything that’s transpired since the last parade, we take that into consideration and we build our counter terrorism protection around that,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said.
However, one NYPD officer had a special moment, proposing to his girlfriend along the parade route.