Thirty of Niagara Regional Police Service's finest are ready to take on their cross-border rivals in the annual International Tug-of-War Challenge on Saturday.

For more than 40 years, Niagara officers have taken on the Niagara Falls, N.Y., Police Department and the Niagara County  Sheriff’s  Department  in  a  battle  of  muscle  for  the  accompanying  boasting  rights  until  next  year’s  challenge.

This year the Tug-of-War Team will be assembling in the parking lot behind Rumors on Clifton Hill at about 1p.m. before marching to the Rainbow Bridge where the event will take place at  2 p.m. sharp.

The  procession  toward  the  bridge  will  be  led  by  the  Niagara  Regional  Police  Service  band  and  will  include Police Chief Wendy Southall, the tug-of-war participants, the Mounted Unit with their new horses, and the Niagara Regional Police Service Color Guard.

There will be brief road closures on Clifton Hill as the procession heads toward the bridge.

The U.S.bound lanes of the Rainbow Bridge will be closed briefly for the event, however traffic will continue in  both directions throughout the event in the Canada-bound lanes.