Photos: Dramatic Lightning Storm Lights Up Verrazzano Bridge

NEW YORK CITY — Lightning struck behind the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge Thursday night amid a wild week of hot summer weather.

While most New Yorkers ducked for cover (as the city highly recommends during the potentially life-threatening storms), MTA Photographer Marc A. Hermann took his camera down to the Shore Road Park path in Bay Ridge to capture pictures of the late night sky.

No lightning actually struck the bridge — which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island — but photos show it came close enough to illuminate the sky over New York Harbor.

Thursday's lighten storm preceded what forecasters predict is going to be a wet, hot New York City weekend.

The city is under a heat advisory until 8 p.m. Friday, when showers and thunderstorms are expected. AccuWeather warned that the "drenching downpours" could along much of the Eastern Seaboard.

New York sees about 3.8 lightning strikes per square mile each year and, in the city, Empire State Building is hit by lightning an average of 25 times per year, the National Weather Service reports.

One city storm saw the iconic building struck by lightning eight times in 24 minutes.

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964 and became, for a time, the longest suspension span in the world, according to the MTA.

The towers are 693 feet high towers and are 1 5/8 inches farther apart at the tops than the bases to compensate for the earth's curvature, said the MTA.

The bridge, which connects Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, was named after the first European explorer to sail into New York Harbor in 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano.