Total bridges
257
Public highway bridges in District of Columbia County
County profile · official public datasets
District of Columbia County, DC
257 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34.6% rated Good, 63.4% Fair, 1.9% Poor.
- 257
- Public bridges
- 34.6%
- Good condition
- 1.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
District of Columbia County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 1st
- of 1 on Poor share
- 1.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 257
- public highway bridges
- 1961
- avg year built
Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.
District of Columbia County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, District of Columbia County ranks #1 of 1 District of Columbia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.9%). District of Columbia County, District of Columbia contains 257 public highway bridges. Roughly 34.6% are rated “Good,” 63.4% “Fair,” and 1.9% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.
Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.
Good condition
34.6%
89 of 257 rated 7-9
Fair condition
63.4%
163 of 257 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.9%
5 of 257 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#1 of 1
Among District of Columbia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 257 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 34.6% (89)
Fair 63.4% (163)
Poor 1.9% (5)
District of Columbia County's Poor-condition bridges carry 125,050 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 25,010 crossings a day against 29,094 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.
Computed over the 257 of 257 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
82.9% of District of Columbia County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
213 of the 257 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 34.6% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.
Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
One structure carries 82.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
T. ROOSEVELT BRID over POT RIVER & POTOMAC, built 1964, carries 103,600 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 125,050 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When District of Columbia County's bridges were built
257 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 13
1900–1909
13 bridges
- 1910s 4
1910–1919
4 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 21
1930–1939
21 bridges
- 1940s 33
1940–1949
33 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
47 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
86 bridges
- 1970s 7
1970–1979
7 bridges
- 1980s 2
1980–1989
2 bridges
- 1990s 3
1990–1999
3 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s 21
2010–2019
21 bridges
- 2020s 14
2020–2029
14 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 86 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1961) matches the District of Columbia average (1961).
Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year
Two NBI-derived peer sets for District of Columbia County, both outside District of Columbia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside DC (257 bridges here).
- Clark County, IN · 257 bridges
- Randolph County, IN · 257 bridges
- Linn County, KS · 257 bridges
- Walsh County, ND · 257 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside DC (1961 here).
- Westchester County, NY · avg 1961 · 774 bridges
- Tehama County, CA · avg 1961 · 450 bridges
- Berkshire County, MA · avg 1961 · 450 bridges
- Schuylkill County, PA · avg 1961 · 368 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (5)
JOYCE ROAD
PoorOver: LUZON BRANCH
0.3 MILES TO BEACH DRIVE., District of Columbia, DC
Built 1950 Load: 11.8 t ADT: 2,100
RAMP FR BENNING RD
PoorOver: SB KENILWORTH AVE
KENILWORTH&BENNING RD, District of Columbia, DC
Built 1955 Load: 24.1 t ADT: 5,000
H STREET
PoorOver: WASHINGTON TERMINAL YARD
H STREET OVER RAILROAD, District of Columbia, DC
Built 1907 Load: 26.3 t ADT: 14,300
T. ROOSEVELT BRID
PoorOver: POT RIVER & POTOMAC
TR BRIDGE-POTOMAC RIVER, District of Columbia, DC
Built 1964 Load: 26.3 t ADT: 103,600
EDGEWATER STABLE A
PoorOver: ROCK CREEK
0.3 MILES FROM CONNECTICU, District of Columbia, DC
Built 1958 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 50
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.