County profile · official public datasets

Essex County, NY

256 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.4% rated Good, 44.5% Fair, 7% Poor.

256
Public bridges: 48.4%
Good condition: 7%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Essex County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 24%
lowest Poor share in state: 7%
Poor-condition share: 256
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Essex County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Essex County ranks #15 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7%). Essex County, New York contains 256 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.4% are rated “Good,” 44.5% “Fair,” and 7% “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.

Total bridges

256

Public highway bridges in Essex County

Good condition

48.4%

124 of 256 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.5%

114 of 256 rated 5-6

Poor condition

18 of 256 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#15 of 62

Among New York counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 256 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

48.4% (124)

Fair

44.5% (114)

Poor

7% (18)

Essex County's Poor-condition bridges carry 24,846 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,380 crossings a day against 1,664 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 245 of 256 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43.4% of Essex County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

111 of the 256 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 48.4% 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 25.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RIVER STREET EXT over OUTLET BROOK, built 1984, carries 6,437 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 18-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 24,846 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

3
1900s

2
1910s

5
1920s

6
1930s

21
1940s

5
1950s

12
1960s

56
1970s

9
1980s

14
1990s

28
2000s

27
2010s

59
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 59 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 9 years newer than the New York average of 1972.

How Essex County compares with New York's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 New York counties nearest Essex County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1968 is 13 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 61 New York counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Essex County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chemung County	256	38.7%	54.7%	6.6%	1977
Chenango County	256	39.1%	53.1%	7.8%	1975
Essex County (this page)	256	48.4%	44.5%	7%	1981
Herkimer County	248	46.8%	41.1%	12.1%	1973
Rockland County	248	26.6%	63.3%	10.1%	1970
New York County	247	13.4%	76.9%	9.7%	1945

Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Essex County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Two NBI-derived peer sets for Essex County, both outside New York so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (256 bridges here).

Clayton County, IA · 256 bridges
Brown County, KS · 256 bridges
Harrison County, WV · 256 bridges
District of Columbia County, DC · 257 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 256 Good 124 Fair 114 Poor 18

Fair-condition bridges (114)

Sort:

Essex County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Essex County's Poor-condition bridges carry 24,846 vehicle crossings a day

43.4% of Essex County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 25.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Essex County compares with New York's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (114)

ALEXANDRIA AVE

TROUT POND ROAD

MONTCALM STREET

RTE I87

RTE 73

STICKNEY BR ROAD

INTERVALE WAY

RTE I87

RTE I87

CROWNINGSHIELD RD

SHEVLIN ROAD

ELIZ-WADHAMS ROAD

WHITEFACE SKI AREA

DEERHEAD REBER RD

N HUDSN MORIAH RD

COUNTY ROAD 37

RTE 9N

LAIGHT HALL ROAD

LEWIS-WADHAM ROAD

SPEAR ROAD

RTE 9N

RTE 9

RTE 9

STOVER ROAD

COUNTY ROAD 4

OREGON PLAINS RD

COUNTY ROAD 68

RTE 22

RTE 22

RTE 28N

RTE 28N

OLD FURNACE ROAD

STOWERSVILLE CR12

CR 34

CR 42

RTE 9N

SHELDRAKE ROAD

RTE 9

LACY ROAD

RTE 74

MOOSE POND ROAD

STICKNEY BR RD

RTE I87

RTE 73

HAMILTON ROAD

CR 2 CREEK ROAD

RTE I87

RTE 86

RTE I87

CR 82

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