Women's national soccer team parades through NYC's 'Canyon of Heroes'

The U.S. Women's National Team is celebrating their World Cup championship with a ticker tape parade in New York City. Throngs of fans are packing Manhattan's famed "Canyon of Heroes" to greet the squad led by Megan Rapinoe.

The parade started at 9:30 a.m. ET, when Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle and their teammates embarked from Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan. From there, the parade will move north up Broadway to City Hall.

The parade includes about a dozen floats from which players will bask in the adulation of their fans. Bearing the U.S. national team's crest — with a new fourth star representing the latest world title — the floats will also carry officials and dignitaries along the parade route.

"It's gonna be liiiit," Rapinoe said, drawing out the word as she climbed aboard a float shortly before 9 a.m., with a Champagne flute in her hand.

"NYC it's parade time let's do this!" Kelley O'Hara said via Twitter. She added, "Bonus points to anyone who brings me a beer or 4."

The procession also includes a brass band, a double-decker bus, and a phalanx of bagpipers, and rows of motorcycles, beeping their horns.

At 10:30 a.m., Mayor Bill de Blasio will host a ceremony at City Hall to mark the team's second consecutive world championship and fourth overall.

The festivities honor the national team's remarkable run in France, where the U.S. women went undefeated in the World Cup, turning away determined challenges from talented and physical squads such as France, Spain, the U.K. and the Netherlands.

Amid the glee over the team's on-field accomplishments, the parade is also likely to highlight the pay disparity between the U.S. national soccer teams: Despite enjoying more success and popularity, the women are paid less than the men, and the female athletes are heading to mediation to try to resolve a lawsuit they filed against U.S. Soccer in March.

Despite facing spirited challenges from ascendant European teams, the U.S. women were wildly successful in France. They set a record by scoring 26 goals in the tournament, with a differential of 23 goals — another record that speaks to the defense played by Crystal Dunn and other backliners.

For Rapinoe and other veterans of the U.S. women's team, New York's Canyon of Heroes is familiar ground: They were treated to a parade there in 2015, after their last World Cup win.

Since the late 1800s, the famous parade route has honored visiting royalty, astronauts, military leaders and war veterans. It has also celebrated Olympic medalists and championships by New York's Yankees and Giants.