County profile · official public datasets

Davidson County, TN

832 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 49% rated Good, 46.3% Fair, 4.7% Poor.

832
Public bridges: 49%
Good condition: 4.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Davidson County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.

65th
of 95 on Poor share: 4.7%
Poor-condition share: 832
public highway bridges: 1973
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.

Davidson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Davidson County ranks #65 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.7%). Davidson County, Tennessee contains 832 public highway bridges. Roughly 49% are rated “Good,” 46.3% “Fair,” and 4.7% “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

832

Public highway bridges in Davidson County

Good condition

49%

408 of 832 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.3%

385 of 832 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.7%

39 of 832 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#65 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 832 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

49% (408)

Fair

46.3% (385)

Poor

4.7% (39)

Davidson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,534,143 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 39,337 crossings a day against 27,809 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 832 of 832 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

54.3% of Davidson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

452 of the 832 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 49% 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 10.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I24 over MILL CREEK, built 1958, carries 155,629 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 39-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,534,143 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1910s

3
1920s

34
1930s

21
1940s

30
1950s

81
1960s

213
1970s

109
1980s

159
1990s

72
2000s

73
2010s

28
2020s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 213 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1973) matches the Tennessee average (1977).

How Davidson County compares with Tennessee's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Davidson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.7% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 5 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 94 Tennessee counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Davidson County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Shelby County	1,077	21.3%	73.5%	5.2%	1977
Davidson County (this page)	832	49%	46.3%	4.7%	1973
Knox County	588	49.8%	48.6%	1.5%	1974
Williamson County	520	63.5%	33.1%	3.5%	1984
Hamilton County	464	46.8%	47%	6.3%	1976
Rutherford County	428	60.3%	35.5%	4.2%	1977

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (832 bridges here).

Duval County, FL · 831 bridges
Montgomery County, PA · 828 bridges
Hillsborough County, FL · 840 bridges
Middlesex County, MA · 818 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (1973 here).

Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
Sacramento County, CA · avg 1973 · 740 bridges

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

All 832 Good 408 Fair 385 Poor 39

Good-condition bridges (408)

Sort:

Davidson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Davidson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,534,143 vehicle crossings a day

54.3% of Davidson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 10.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Davidson County compares with Tennessee's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (408)

FAU 4164 340981F

FAU 4911 350204B

NFA B059

NFA B319

NFA C099

NFA A359

NFA B375

NFA C503

NFA B966

NFA C760

NFA 0C027

NFA 0C027

NFA F253

NFA D225

NFA D223

NFA A042

NFA A042

FAU 4918

NFA A198

NFA A210

FAU 4924

NFA A236

NFA A232

NFA D427

FAU 4927

NFA A295

NFA D460

NFA D460

NFA D460

NFA A398

NFA C803

NFA A341

NFA A307

NFA C944

NFA C973

NFA E087

NFA D101

NFA A731

NFA D278

NFA A511

NFA D583

FAU 5501 348025K

FAU 4160

NFA E292 298466T

NFA E448

NFA C379

NFA B687

NFA E505

NFA E508

NFA E509

Related