Giuliani leaves City Hall

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Rudolph Giuliani walked out of City Hall in New York for the last time as mayor on Monday.

City Hall staffers cheered the mayor as he made his way out of the building Monday evening. Uniformed bagpipe musicians provided the music for the traditional "piping out" ceremony.

Giuliani, accompanied by his girlfriend Judith Nathan, hugged aides and supporters alike as he left for the New Year's Eve ball drop and the mayoral swearing-in ceremony in Times Square.

Following the ball drop Giuliani will swear in incoming mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Prior to leaving City Hall, Giuliani held his final news conference where he announced a memorial for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade center and killed more than 3,000 people.

He began his final day in office with appearances on all the network morning news programs.

"My responsibilities are over at midnight tonight," Giuliani said on NBC's Today show. "I feel that we've given everything we possibly could, including some of the times we made mistakes."

In addition to his television appearances, Giuliani took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Central Park Precinct station house, and attended a graduation ceremony for probationary firefighters in Brooklyn.