San Franfrazzled: Once-in-a-lifetime picture of lightning striking iconic bridge

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 13 April 2012

[Lorianne]

An incredible eight bolts struck the Bay Bridge in San Francisco last night which was captured in this incredible shot by photographer Phil McGrew, who took the photo through the rain-soaked window of his apartment.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

As long as they were in the car and not walking they would be fine.The rubber tires of the car insulate them from the current.

[stevio]

Yea, you’re right. If they were all at once you would see headlights and taillights as if they were standing still.

[Lancey Howard]

That is cool!

[hinckley buzzard]

Wow, I hope people weren’t driving across it at the time.

See that solid stream of light tracking the highway across the bridge? That's headlights of traffic. Lots of people crossed while the photographer was waiting for enough strikes to hit to make the photo he wanted.

Nice picture but no big deal to get it.

[Past Your Eyes]

Well, not really. The metal mass of the car around them is what gives them protection.

[O6ret]

Great picture...quite a view from the apartment.

Anybody have the details on camera, lens, settings?

[Kirkwood]

Actually the car body acts as a Faraday cage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

[hinckley buzzard]

EggZackly.

[thecodont]

That was quite a storm that generated it! Right outside my window, too (but I didn’t take a nice picture). We were lucky the power stayed out. We had thunderclaps every five minutes, it seemed.

[Gertie]

Why do I count “nine” strikes?

[Erasmus]

“I, for one, welcome our new Stone Masters.”

[A.A. Cunningham]

I count nine strikes.

[exit82]

Well, there goes that $ 205,000 bush!

[Lorianne]

I saw another report (after I posted this) that said it was nine.

[Gargantua]

Uhmm, that’s nine bolts of lightning, not eight.

[Erasmus]

Named after the English scientist Michael Faraday, who eventually grew so unruly they had to keep him in a cage.

≤}B^)

[Gargantua]

And under enhancement, there is even a tenth bolt striking way down at the far end of the bridge, so faint that it's barely visible in situ.

Amazing.

[ThomasThomas]

The lighting not striking a tower looks like it might be hitting something near the ground on the far shore. or not.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I thought it was the damn tires.

[GOP Poet]

very cool!