County profile · official public datasets

Henderson County, NC

245 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 35.5% rated Good, 55.5% Fair, 9% Poor.

245
Public bridges: 35.5%
Good condition: 9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Henderson County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

73rd
of 100 on Poor share: 9%
Poor-condition share: 245
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.

Henderson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Henderson County ranks #73 of 100 North Carolina counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9%). Henderson County, North Carolina contains 245 public highway bridges. Roughly 35.5% are rated “Good,” 55.5% “Fair,” and 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.

Total bridges

245

Public highway bridges in Henderson County

Good condition

35.5%

87 of 245 rated 7-9

Fair condition

55.5%

136 of 245 rated 5-6

Poor condition

22 of 245 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#73 of 100

Among North Carolina counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 245 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

35.5% (87)

Fair

55.5% (136)

Poor

9% (22)

Henderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 89,910 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 4,087 crossings a day against 6,137 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 245 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

49% of Henderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

120 of the 245 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 35.5% 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 15.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US64 over FRENCH BROAD RVR.OVERFLO, built 1955, carries 14,000 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 89,910 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

2
1930s

6
1940s

4
1950s

28
1960s

62
1970s

37
1980s

24
1990s

18
2000s

22
2010s

31
2020s

10

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 62 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.3% 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 Henderson County compares with North Carolina's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 North Carolina counties nearest Henderson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is 5 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 99 North Carolina counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Henderson County and the 5 North Carolina counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Ashe County	247	33.6%	41.7%	24.7%	1984
Rowan County	245	55.5%	42.4%	2%	1993
Henderson County (this page)	245	35.5%	55.5%	9%	1979
Alamance County	244	48.4%	46.7%	4.9%	1987
Madison County	244	33.2%	45.1%	21.7%	1975
Chatham County	241	42.7%	55.2%	2.1%	1983

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 Henderson 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 Henderson County, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NC (245 bridges here).

Allegany County, MD · 245 bridges
Highland County, OH · 245 bridges
Pike County, OH · 245 bridges
Grimes County, TX · 245 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.

All 245 Good 87 Fair 136 Poor 22

Fair-condition bridges (136)

Sort:

Henderson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Henderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 89,910 vehicle crossings a day

49% of Henderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 15.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Henderson County compares with North Carolina'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 (136)

US64

US25 SBL

I26 US74 WBL

SR1212

US64

US64

SR1205

US25 NBL

US25 SBL

US25 SBL

NC280

US25 NBL

US25 BUS.

US25 NBL

SR1551

US25 NBL

US25SB

SR1597

US25 NBL

US25

US74A

US25 SBL

SR1309

US64

US25 NBL

SR1109

SR1518

SR1205

SR1346

SR1567

SR1348

SR1196

SR1580

SR1783

SR2122

SR1970

Related