County profile · official public datasets

Henderson County, TN

207 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.9% rated Good, 64.7% Fair, 3.4% Poor.

207
Public bridges: 31.9%
Good condition: 3.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 42%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.4%
Poor-condition share: 207
public highway bridges: 1983
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 #40 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.4%). Henderson County, Tennessee contains 207 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.9% are rated “Good,” 64.7% “Fair,” and 3.4% “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 Henderson County

Good condition

31.9%

66 of 207 rated 7-9

Fair condition

64.7%

134 of 207 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.4%

7 of 207 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#40 of 95

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

Condition distribution

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

Good

31.9% (66)

Fair

64.7% (134)

Poor

3.4% (7)

Henderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,316 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 188 crossings a day against 3,568 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 205 of 207 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

34.3% of Henderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

71 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 31.9% 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 47.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA A451 over VAN CREEK, built 1986, carries 620 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,316 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

9
1940s

2
1950s

10
1960s

39
1970s

30
1980s

40
1990s

22
2000s

27
2010s

20
2020s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 40 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 6 years newer than the Tennessee average of 1977.

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Henderson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.4% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Henderson County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Blount County	215	63.7%	33.5%	2.8%	1974
Lawrence County	211	53.6%	44.5%	1.9%	1979
Henderson County (this page)	207	31.9%	64.7%	3.4%	1983
Robertson County	204	63.7%	34.8%	1.5%	1975
Smith County	202	56.4%	33.7%	9.9%	1971
Tipton County	201	40.3%	55.2%	4.5%	1985

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 Tennessee so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (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 TN (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 207 Good 66 Fair 134 Poor 7

Good-condition bridges (66)

Sort:

Henderson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Henderson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,316 vehicle crossings a day

34.3% of Henderson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 47.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Henderson 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 (66)

NFA A003

FAP 20

NFA 1691 (SA 3906)

NFA A441

NFA 2701

NFA A012

NFA A043

NFA A047

NFA A049 (SA 3917)

NFA A086

NFA A118

NFA A130

NFA A154

NFA A196

NFA A238

NFA A274

NFA A286

NFA A342 (SA 3923)

NFA A344

NFA A353

NFA A370

NFA A439

NFA A467

NFA 06028

NFA 892

NFA B049

FAS 104

I40

NFA 5566 (SA 3911)

NFA 1648

FAS 114

FAS 114

FAS 114

FAS 114

FAS 114

FAS 114

FAS 201

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 38

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