On the Upper West Side, the 100th Parade's Street Closures Start on a Wednesday

The 100th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade steps off Thursday, November 26, 2026, and runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon. For anyone living between West 72nd and West 86th Streets, the bigger day is the one before it. The city lists the balloon inflation for Wednesday, November 25, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., with entry at 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue. The streets start closing many hours before the first balloon goes up. In 2025, the earliest closures weren't on the blocks where the balloons lay. They were on the blocks people walk through to get there and the blocks where the floats are assembled.

That layout explains the whole week on these streets. The museum blocks are the attraction. The blocks on either side carry the crowd and the floats.

The Clock, Block by Block

Last year's city notice for the inflation and parade gave a separate closing time for each cross street it listed between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. The 2025 times are below, with each day shifted to its 2026 date. The city notes that closures can change at the NYPD's direction.

The table shows a pattern. West 77th and West 81st, the two streets that frame the museum, closed four hours after West 73rd through 76th and West 84th and 85th. Every street on the list stayed shut until 3 p.m. Thursday. For a building on West 74th, that came to 37 hours of closed street around one afternoon of balloon viewing.

The Entry Corridor Takes the Crowd

Viewers enter through a security checkpoint at West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue. In 2025, according to West Side Rag's event-day guide, the route went north from there to West 77th, then west along Columbus to West 81st, and the line opened at noon, an hour before viewing began.

The low 70s get the heaviest foot traffic of the week, and an earlier year shows what that does to an ordinary block. In 2019, viewers were routed down West 73rd Street toward Central Park West. West Side Rag reported that a dog day care on the block was told West 73rd was under a "pedestrian freeze" and its staff could not walk dogs on the sidewalk. The 20th Precinct's commanding officer told the outlet that "between 300K and 500K people will filter down that block tonight."

For scale, the city's 2025 notice expected more than 3.5 million spectators along the entire parade route the next morning. The precinct's 2019 estimate put as much as a seventh of that number on one residential block, all in a single afternoon and evening.

The screening rules at the checkpoint matter on the blocks around it as well. Barred items at the viewing route include:

• Bags or backpacks larger than 12x6x12
• Lawn chairs and other chairs
• Large coolers and alcoholic beverages
• Pets
• Umbrellas
• Drones and weapons

Pets and umbrellas are both on the list for a late-November afternoon, so a dog walk or a rainy errand works best on a route that stays west of Columbus.

The closest subway stop to the entrance is the B and C at 72nd Street and Central Park West. At the 1, 2 and 3 station at West 72nd and Broadway, both elevators reopened in late September after more than a year of replacement work.

Why the Museum Blocks Close Later

The 6 a.m. closures on West 77th and West 81st follow the inflation process itself. Crews lay each balloon flat on the closed streets beside the American Museum of Natural History and fill it with helium, which takes about 90 minutes per balloon. The tallest balloons stand about five stories. The viewing area circles the museum from West 77th to West 81st between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West.

This year has more to fill. Macy's is marking the 100th parade with 100 inflatables. The lineup includes Buckaroo Bob the Minion riding a giant banana, Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey, Hello Kitty, Bluey, Goku, Pikachu and Eevee, and SpongeBob SquarePants and Gary. Underdog flies for the first time since 1984, and the Blue Hippopotamus returns after last appearing in the 1931 parade.

Viewing is free and needs no museum ticket. The museum is normally open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and is closed on Thanksgiving Day.

The North End Is the Float Yard

The 2 a.m. closures on West 84th and 85th have a different cause. In 2025, the viewing route exited at West 81st Street and Central Park West, and float assembly could be seen between West 81st and West 86th. West Side Rag's 2025 guide described visitors walking up to see the floats once they had passed the balloons. This year's floats include a Mr. Peanut Power Plant, which marks the brand's 120th year.

So the neighborhood has three zones on Wednesday. The crowd comes in through the low 70s, the balloons fill the museum blocks, and the floats line up in the mid 80s. Each zone sets its own closing time.

Thursday morning shifts the route south. The most recent detailed NYPD advisory, from 2021, put the step-off at Central Park West and West 77th Street, with the parade heading south to Columbus Circle, along Central Park South, and down Sixth Avenue to 34th Street. That route explains why Central Park West below 72nd closed only at 9 p.m. Wednesday in 2025, while the stretch above 72nd had been closed since 2 a.m.

Where the Week Sends You for a Table

The closures run between Columbus and the park, which leaves Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway as the open edge. Several newer spots sit close to each end of the route.

Near the exit at West 81st. TALEA Beer Co. opened September 25 at 441 Amsterdam Avenue, between West 81st and 82nd Streets, in the former St. James Gate space. Co-founder Tara Hankinson told West Side Rag that the all-day menu covers brunch and lunch favorites, evening entrées and kid-friendly food. The brewery's bestseller is Al Dente, an Italian-style pilsner. One avenue west, Eataly Caffè is taking the corner of Broadway and West 81st at 2252 Broadway, the former Starbucks space, with coffee, sweet and savory pastries and Roman-style pizza. It is the brand's fourth New York City caffè, after the Upper East Side, Hudson Yards and Midtown.

Near the float yard. Velvet Cowboy, a Western bar from the owners of Jacob's Pickles, opened September 29 in Jacob's former space at 509 Amsterdam Avenue, between West 84th and 85th. Its food menu is priced at $5 and includes Texas chili and Frito pie. It sits a block west of the two streets that closed earliest at the north end in 2025.

Near the entry at 72nd. Kine Musubi, a Hawaiian musubi counter from co-founder Chi Ian Chan, began its soft opening on September 24 at 128 West 72nd Street. From there, the walk to the 72nd and Columbus checkpoint is short.

The neighborhood has run this ritual for a long time. The Thanksgiving Eve inflation has been held since 1994. In 2016, West Side Rag covered a public balloon-inflation carnival at the P.S. 334 schoolyard at 77th and Amsterdam, with games, a bounce house and concessions.

Living inside the closure zone also affects things like scheduling a move, a delivery or a building showing during Thanksgiving week. If a sale or purchase on these blocks is on your calendar this season, The Shapot Team can help you time each step around the closures. Request a Market Consultation.