Total bridges
94
Public highway bridges in Graham County
County profile · official public datasets
Graham County, NC
94 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 35.1% rated Good, 60.6% Fair, 4.3% Poor.
- 94
- Public bridges
- 35.1%
- Good condition
- 4.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Graham County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 44%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 4.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 94
- public highway bridges
- 1979
- 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.
Graham County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Graham County ranks #44 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.3%). Graham County, North Carolina contains 94 public highway bridges. Roughly 35.1% are rated “Good,” 60.6% “Fair,” and 4.3% “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
35.1%
33 of 94 rated 7-9
Fair condition
60.6%
57 of 94 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4.3%
4 of 94 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#44 of 100
Among North Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 94 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 35.1% (33)
Fair 60.6% (57)
Poor 4.3% (4)
Graham County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,740 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 435 crossings a day against 589 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 94 of 94 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
47.9% of Graham County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
45 of the 94 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 35.1% 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 46% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
NC28 over LITTLE TENNESSEE RIVER, built 1943, carries 800 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,740 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Graham County's bridges were built
94 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
11 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
22 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
16 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
13 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
11 bridges
- 2000s 1
2000–2009
1 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
15 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 7 years older than the North Carolina average of 1986.
How Graham County compares with North Carolina's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Graham County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.3% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1988 is 9 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 99 North Carolina counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland County | 101 | 44.6% | 54.5% | 1% | 1983 |
| Lee County | 98 | 57.1% | 42.9% | 0% | 1989 |
| Bertie County | 95 | 50.5% | 46.3% | 3.2% | 1993 |
| Graham County (this page) | 94 | 35.1% | 60.6% | 4.3% | 1979 |
| Davie County | 93 | 33.3% | 62.4% | 4.3% | 1982 |
| Caswell County | 90 | 58.9% | 35.6% | 5.6% | 1991 |
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 Graham 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 Graham County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NC (94 bridges here).
- Yukon-Koyukuk County, AK · 94 bridges
- Lee County, AR · 94 bridges
- Huerfano County, CO · 94 bridges
- Henry County, KY · 94 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NC (1979 here).
- Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
- Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
- Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
- McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (4)
SR1105
PoorOver: MILL CREEK
.2 MI.N.JCT.NC129, Graham, NC
Built 1964 Load: 4.5 t ADT: 560
SR1236
PoorOver: SOUTH FORK SAWYER CREEK
.6 MI.E.JCT.NC28, Graham, NC
Built 1962 Load: 9.9 t ADT: 200
SR1202
PoorOver: TULULA CREEK
.2 MI.N.JCT.US129, Graham, NC
Built 1960 Load: 34.4 t ADT: 180
NC28
PoorOver: LITTLE TENNESSEE RIVER
1 MI.N.JCT.SR1246, Graham, NC
Built 1943 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 800
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.