County profile · official public datasets

Potter County, PA

207 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44.9% rated Good, 42% Fair, 13% Poor.

207
Public bridges: 44.9%
Good condition: 13%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

40th
of 67 on Poor share: 13%
Poor-condition share: 207
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.

Potter County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Potter County ranks #40 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 13%). Potter County, Pennsylvania contains 207 public highway bridges. Roughly 44.9% are rated “Good,” 42% “Fair,” and 13% “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

207

Public highway bridges in Potter County

Good condition

44.9%

93 of 207 rated 7-9

Fair condition

42%

87 of 207 rated 5-6

Poor condition

13%

27 of 207 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#40 of 67

Among Pennsylvania counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 207 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

44.9% (93)

Fair

42% (87)

Poor

13% (27)

Potter County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,559 vehicle crossings a day

That is 7.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 406 crossings a day against 645 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 206 of 207 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

45.9% of Potter County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

95 of the 207 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 44.9% 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 28.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 6-US 6 over TROUT BROOK, built 1967, carries 2,978 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 27-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 10,559 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

2
1910s

3
1920s

6
1930s

9
1940s

10
1950s

17
1960s

30
1970s

23
1980s

12
1990s

27
2000s

16
2010s

45
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 45 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 9 years newer than the Pennsylvania average of 1970.

How Potter County compares with Pennsylvania's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Potter County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 13% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 6 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 66 Pennsylvania counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Potter County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Warren County	217	36.4%	45.2%	18.4%	1974
Clinton County	212	42.9%	54.7%	2.4%	1978
Potter County (this page)	207	44.9%	42%	13%	1979
Jefferson County	202	29.2%	63.9%	6.9%	1972
Mifflin County	196	41.8%	45.4%	12.8%	1974
Venango County	189	35.4%	49.7%	14.8%	1968

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 Potter 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 Potter County, both outside Pennsylvania so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (207 bridges here).

Marin County, CA · 207 bridges
Las Animas County, CO · 207 bridges
Shelby County, IA · 207 bridges
Washington County, IA · 207 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (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 207 Good 93 Fair 87 Poor 27

Poor-condition bridges (27)

Sort:

Potter County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Potter County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,559 vehicle crossings a day

45.9% of Potter County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 28.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Potter County compares with Pennsylvania's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Poor-condition bridges (27)

T-302 S WOODS RD

T-356 BRYANT HO RD

T-351 TOPEKA ROAD

T-583 HARRISON RD

T-391 CRANDALL RD

T-302 S. WOODS RD

ON MILL STREET

T-589 PLUMSTEAD RD

SR 3002

T417 CROSS FORK RD

SR 4025

ELLIOT STREET

T304 BIG MOORES RD

T-441 STILES HILL

SR 4017

T-436 HARDSCRABBLE

Bridge Street

ON TSR 405

SR 6-US 6

HORN HOLLOW ROAD

SR 449-PA 449

T-322 ATKINS ROAD

SR 244-PA 244

SR 4001

HUNGRY HOLLOW ROAD

SR 49-PA 49

GARRETSON STREET

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