--- description: Photojournalist Gary Hershorn captured two bolts of lightning hitting One World Trade Center in New York City on May 23, 2014. title: See Two Bolts of Lightning Strike One World Trade Center image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5d6090cecf49519/698690c4169ab01e90279764/double-lightning-world-trade-center-wtc.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [weather](/tag/weather/) ## weather Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Two Bolts of Lightning Strike One World Trade Center  by [Mia Tramz](/author/mia-tramz/)  ## Mia Tramz Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 24, 2014 3:10 AM CUT  New York City, New York State, USA --- Two bolts of lightning hit the antenna on top of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan as an electrical storm moves over New York, May 23, 2014\. --- Image by © Gary Hershorn/Corbis New York City, New York State, USA --- Two bolts of lightning hit the antenna on top of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan as an electrical storm moves over New York, May 23, 2014\. --- Image by © Gary Hershorn/CorbisGary Hershorn—Insider Images/Corbis  by [Mia Tramz](/author/mia-tramz/)  ## Mia Tramz Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 24, 2014 3:10 AM CUT As a thunderstorm passed over New York City Friday night, photojournalist Gary Hershorn captured two bolts of lightning hitting the spire on top of [One World Trade Center](http://time.com/world-trade-center/ "undefined") in Lower Manhattan. A seasoned photographer and photo editor, Hershorn described how he captured the photo: “I saw the storm clouds forming while I was shooting some pictures of lower Manhattan from Jersey City right across from One World Trade Center. I was shooting with a point and shoot camera so I raced home and grabbed my real camera and tripod and went to a gazebo next to the Hudson River and shot endless 10 second exposures hoping to catch the bolts of lightning. I shot about 150 pictures and 6 frames had lightning bolts. I missed about 5 others in between frames. I was able to shoot from a covered spot in the pouring rain. It feels like I spend half my life shooting the New York skyline but have been waiting for years to have the perfect electrical storm around sunset…\[T\]he light in the sky was nicely balanced with the lightning and the brightness of the buildings on the skyline.” [**MORE:** One World Trade Center: How New York rebuilt the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere](http://time.com/world-trade-center/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/111792/two-bolts-of-lightning-one-world-trade-center/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/111792/two-bolts-of-lightning-one-world-trade-center/"},"headline":"Two Bolts of Lightning Strike One World Trade Center","datePublished":"2014-05-24T03:10:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:02:03.005Z","description":"Photojournalist Gary Hershorn captured two bolts of lightning hitting One World Trade Center in New York City on May 23, 2014.","url":"https://time.com/111792/two-bolts-of-lightning-one-world-trade-center/","keywords":["weather","New York City","manhattan","lightning"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5d6090cecf49519/698690c4169ab01e90279764/double-lightning-world-trade-center-wtc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mia Tramz","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mia-tramz/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5d6090cecf49519/698690c4169ab01e90279764/double-lightning-world-trade-center-wtc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Two bolts of lightning hit the antenna on top of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan as an ele","caption":"Two bolts of lightning hit the antenna on top of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan as an ele","creditText":"Gary Hershorn—Insider Images/Corbis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/weather/","name":"weather"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/111792/two-bolts-of-lightning-one-world-trade-center/","name":"Two Bolts of Lightning Strike One World Trade Center"}}]}] ```