Total bridges
256
Public highway bridges in Essex County
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.
Good condition
48.4%
124 of 256 rated 7-9
Fair condition
44.5%
114 of 256 rated 5-6
Poor condition
7%
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.
When Essex County's bridges were built
256 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 3
Built before 1900
3 bridges
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s 5
1910–1919
5 bridges
- 1920s 6
1920–1929
6 bridges
- 1930s 21
1930–1939
21 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 12
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
56 bridges
- 1970s 9
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s 14
1980–1989
14 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
28 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
27 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
59 bridges
- 2020s 9
2020–2029
9 bridges
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.
| 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 bridges (256)
RTE I87
PoorOver: RTE 910K
I87 EXIT 29, Essex, NY
Built 1966 Load: 50.8 t ADT: 5,019
I-87 NB EXIT 32 OF
PoorOver: SPRUCE MILL BROOK
I87 REST AREA RAMP LEWIS, Essex, NY
Built 1966 Load: 54.4 t ADT: 442
RTE 9N
PoorOver: STYLES BROOK
3.0 MI N JCT RTS 9N & 73, Essex, NY
Built 1930 Load: 54.8 t ADT: 1,290
GILLIGAN ROAD
PoorOver: BOQUET RIVER
7 MI S ELIZABETHTOWN, Essex, NY
Built 1911 Load: 55.3 t ADT: 12
HURRICANE ROAD
PoorOver: JACKSON BROOK
1.5 MI N OF ELIZBETHTOWN, Essex, NY
Built 1930 Load: 59.9 t ADT: 84
FORGE HOLLOW ROAD
PoorOver: MILL BROOK
1.5MI. N OF PORT HENRY, Essex, NY
Built 1930 Load: 73.5 t ADT: 247
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.