America Celebrates Fourth of July

July 4, 2000 -- New Yorkers may be hard to impress, but when 150 tons of explosives light up the night sky, it’s hard to stay home.

Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to watch the rockets’ red-white-and-blue pop from 13 barges in New York Harbor, capping off OpSail’s parade of tall ships and naval vessels. Each barge represents one of the original colonies, organizers said.

Macy’s Fireworks 2000 was “ the largest it has everbeen,” said Jean McFaddin, producer and director of theextravaganza—60,024 shells shooting into the air from fourlocations in the city’s waterways, three times more than last year. “This is the biggest fireworks show in the world, ever.”

A Show for the Gods

McFaddin was in charge of the computer-fired bursts, from acommand site at the midtown Water Club on the East River. A dozenworkers staffed telephones, video screens and walkie-talkies there this afternoon.

Accompanying the pyrotechnics was a soundtrack including Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” patriotic standards like “Stars and Stripes Forever” and awhimsical section that includes the noises of whistles, birds andbees.

The show ended in a fiery tribute to the Statue of Liberty from two barges in the Verrazano Narrows between Staten Island and Brooklyn and another barge by the statue delivering a final, six-minute salute.

Computers earlier today stood ready to beam instructions signals through theair to automatically trigger the fireworks at each barge, but McFaddin said there were also four manual backup systems for emergencies.

Because the show was staged from so many different locations, no one on the ground could see all the pyrotechnics.

“The person who will see best is God,” McFaddin said. “Only the heavens will see the whole show.”

Jostling for a Spot

Elsewhere around the nation and around the world, Americans celebrated their independence with less hubris but just as much gusto.

Many set off their own fireworks, disregarding safety warnings and realizing John Quincy Adams’ 18th-century fantasy.

The founding father wrote to his wife Abigail that the Declaration of Independence “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”

In Washington, D.C., hundreds of thousands of people packed the National Mall as fireworks lit up the Washington monument, which officially opens later this month aftera long face-lift.

Broadway star Audra McDonald sang the national anthem to open the party, and soul star Ray Charles was scheduled to sing later.

And in Boston, an estimated 400,000 people—many of them die-hards who had arrived before the gates opened at 6 a.m. to stake out spots—showed up at the Esplanade along the Charles River for the traditional Boston Pops concert and fireworks display.

“I just love this day,” said. the Rev. Veronica Lanier, 82, of Melrose, who has been coming for 35 years. “It’s such a celebration, and I love having reason to celebrate.”

Humming Turtles

But others decided to forego the fireworks, opting for family picnics and other, quieter, celebrations.

About 200 North Carolina residents, including Governor Hunt, trooped north to Canada today for an Independence Day party in Ottawa. The celebration at the ambassador’s residence—designed in part to promote tourism and trade with Canada—featured North Carolina food, entertainment and culture.

In Baltimore, meanwhile, two whistling and humming turtles made a big hit at the American Visionary Art Museum’s annual pet parade at Inner Harbor—even if they did confuse the occasion and perform “Happy Birthday” instead of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Jamoca, a Yorkshire Terrier dressed like a sailor from an Operation Sail 2000 ship, won a five-foot-long dog biscuit for the best costume.

“The Fourth of July usually focuses and centers on loved ones and those closest to our lives,” said Ed Istwan, a pet parade judge. “Pets are a natural component to everyday life and should be a part of the holiday.”

Golf Cart Parade

In Jarbridge, Nev., hundreds of people seized the occasion for a protest. Led by state Assemblyman John Carpenter, they joined together on Independence Day to hoist a huge boulder they dubbed the “Liberty Rock” and lay claim to a remote dirt road in defiance of the U.S. Forest Service, which says it owns the site.

Chanting “Freedom, Freedom,” the Shovel Brigade protesters moved the boulder inch by inch, using three lines of rope attached to a chain around the rock and blocking access to South Canyon Road.

“You can see what people power does,” Carpenter said.

In Chattanooga, Tenn., meanwhile, a local club used its people power to make a different kind of statement for the history books.

Members of the Alhambra Shriners Club decorated dozens of golf carts with red, white and blue in honor of the nation’s birthday, forming what could well be the longest golf cart parade on record.

“We have had this for every year, because we don’t do fireworks,” Shriner Wiley Heard told ABCNEWS. “And it’s just gotten bigger and bigger every year, so I called the Guinness Book of World Records to ask them if there was anything documented as far as the longest golf cart parade, and there’s not.”

“They said document it, send it to them with times stamped, and they would send it back and let us know if we’re in,” Heard said. “So probably we’ve got a good chance of getting in it and being number one.”

Tragic Moments

Unfortunately, not everyone’s holiday celebrations passed without accidents and disasters.

In Burien, Wash., 19-year-old Andy Hahto lost three fingers on his right hand in a fireworks explosion.

At Baltimore’s PSINET Stadium, the Summer Sanitorium Tour featuring rockers Metallica, Korn and Kid Rock was marred by the death of one fan, who was killed when he fell from the upper deck of the stadium.

And in California, the Highway Patrol said 29 people were killed in automobile accidents over the holiday weekend as of this morning, and authorities reported 1,290 arrests for suspicion of driving under the influence.

Land of the Free

However, many Americans managed to remember the solemnity and grandeur of the occasion.

In Philadelphia, seven descendants of John Hart and John Morton, two of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence, wore white gloves as they tapped the Liberty Bell thirteen times, once for each original colony. The copper-and-tin bell, made in 1753, bell chimed in response, as did other bells throughout the country, in a ceremony called “Let Freedom Ring.”

And half a world away, at Camp Bond Stele in Kosovo, even a task force policy forbidding beer didn’t dampen a July 4 celebration that included hotdogs and hamburgers, fireworks and even the Los Angeles Lakers’ cheerleading squad.

But “it’s also a day of reflection,” Specialist Bill Putnam from Seattle, Wash., told ABCNEWS. “It’s a time to think about what we’ve got and others don’t. Especially being here in Kosovo, for the last, almost seven months now. It’s certainly been an eye opener for me about what I have back home.”

ABCNEWS Radio’s Tom Macdonald and Soddy Daisy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.