I think I have PTSD now. <shudder>
Or a stone’s throw from Cirith Ungol. :: also shudders ::
Golden-web spiders of similar size are quite common here in Panama. Walking into their webs, which are quite tough, is a bit of a hazard if you are the first one down a trail in the morning. They have their uses though. When pestered by hovering horseflies, I try to find a web and stand next to it until the flies make a wrong turn and get snared.
Holy Cow. I remember scuttling spiders in the Philippines that were about this size, but even though they were lightning fast they were pretty wussy and didn’t have webs to speak of. By contrast this looks like an armored tank suspended in steel cable. Yikes.
There was a series of BC comic strips a while ago, wherein the bird and turtle kept wondering why in hell anything would need eight legs. 
Seeing that shot of the spider capturing a bird, I guess that explain it. <shudders>
Um, may I ask where you live? I’m sure you’re a lovely person, but I hope you don’t live near me. I just showed the pictures of this spider to my fourteen year old son. I told him that if I found one of these in the house, we were simply going to move. No packing, no getting our stuff, we’re just leaving. I’ll call the insurance agent and tell him that the house is a total loss.
This thing is bigger than a Goliath Bird Eater, no???
Maybe not in weight/overall mass, but leg-span at least??
Is the spider in that photo really a golden orb spider? It doesn’t have any yellow on it…it has some red, though…at any rate, I now keep thinking that spiders are crawling on me! Thanks so much!! 
Gah! You see those a LOT here (Okinawa, so most of ya’ll are probably safe). Leg span of about 7-8 inches is pretty common. They do just kind of sit there in their webs, though. I’ve never seen one in the house–it’s the massive wolf spiders that are worse. I walked face first into one of those webs last year (luckily a smallish one–maybe 3" leg span) and much shrieking and swatting and hyperventilation ensued. Right now it’s spider season, and I just avoid the trails completely until they die off in the fall. 'Course, it’s too hot to hike anyway. Much fewer massive spiders at the beach.
If i recall correctly Golden Orb Weaver refers to the colour of the web, not the spider itself. Though i’ve no clue whether it’s a Golden Orb Weaver or not.
But don’t forget, those spiders eat annoying pests, such as door-to-door salesmen.
True. They are also called just golden-web spiders. The name refers to any spider in the genus Nephila, which is found through much of the tropics and in some places into the subtropics (as in Florida). The one in the OP seems to be Nephila maculata, the largest of the genus, which ranges from Africa through Asia to Australia. The one here in Panama is Nephila clavipes, which ranges into the southern US.
They mostly come at night.
mostly
You’re killing me, Zebra.
I really want to vow that I will never leave the house again, but I’ve seen enough movies to know that if I do that, right after hitting “Post”, there’ll be one behind me.
Ugghhh
We have those here in northern Florida. They get plenty big. Much of my wanderings through the woods are punctuated by occasional screaming and dancing…
Here’s a worse one here.
During Desert Storm, I dropped a mechanics toolbox on one that was crawling across the floor of our tent right TOWARD me. In the morning, after I got off duty and went back to get some sleep, that giant thing was crawling across the floor with the back half of it’s body missing. BLEAH! I went and slept in my truck.
That’s not actually a spider, but another kind of arachnid called a solpugid, or a sun scorpion or wind scorpion.
Damn. Cancel my vacation to Tallahassee.
Personally, I think they’re beautiful.