County profile · official public datasets

Perry County, TN

153 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 23.5% rated Good, 75.2% Fair, 1.3% Poor.

153
Public bridges: 23.5%
Good condition: 1.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Perry County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 11%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.3%
Poor-condition share: 153
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.

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Perry County ranks #10 of 95 Tennessee counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.3%). Perry County, Tennessee contains 153 public highway bridges. Roughly 23.5% are rated “Good,” 75.2% “Fair,” and 1.3% “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.

Total bridges

153

Public highway bridges in Perry County

Good condition

23.5%

36 of 153 rated 7-9

Fair condition

75.2%

115 of 153 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.3%

2 of 153 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#10 of 95

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

Condition distribution

Share of 153 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

23.5% (36)

Fair

75.2% (115)

Poor

1.3% (2)

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,485 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 743 crossings a day against 322 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 153 of 153 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.7% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

50 of the 153 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 23.5% 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 99.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NFA 921 (SA 6802) over BUFFALO RIVER, built 1958, carries 1,475 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,485 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

6
1940s

5
1950s

13
1960s

15
1970s

14
1980s

53
1990s

29
2000s

8
2010s

5
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 34.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Tennessee average (1977).

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

The 5 Tennessee counties nearest Perry County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.3% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Perry County and the 5 Tennessee counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Warren County	160	48.1%	48.1%	3.8%	1976
Cannon County	159	45.9%	43.4%	10.7%	1974
Roane County	159	48.4%	49.7%	1.9%	1972
Franklin County	157	42.7%	53.5%	3.8%	1980
Perry County (this page)	153	23.5%	75.2%	1.3%	1979
Benton County	147	33.3%	65.3%	1.4%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside TN (153 bridges here).

Sussex County, DE · 153 bridges
Jefferson County, IN · 153 bridges
Harrison County, KY · 153 bridges
Roger Mills County, OK · 153 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside TN (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

Fair

Over: CANE CREEK

2.5 MI. E. OF SR-13, Perry, TN

Built 1968 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 722

FAP 100

Fair

Over: BRUSH CREEK

4.3 MI. NE. OF LINDEN, Perry, TN

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,485 vehicle crossings a day

32.7% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 99.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Perry 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

All bridges (153)

FAS 438

FAP 13

FAP 13

FAP 13

FAP 13

FAP 13

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAP 20

FAS 438

FAS 438

FAP 100

NFA 1775 (SA 6801)

NFA A162

FAP 20

NFA A022

NFA A302

NFA 1775 (SA 6801)

NFA 1775 (SA 6801)

NFA 1777

NFA A010

NFA A018

NFA A045

NFA A109

NFA A111

NFA A123

NFA A125

NFA A130

NFA A134

NFA A154

NFA A157

NFA A157

NFA A160

NFA A162

NFA A167

NFA A188

NFA A189

NFA A190

NFA A202

NFA A227

NFA A233

NFA A385

NFA A386

NFA A327

FAS 438

FAS 128

FAP 13

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