County profile · official public datasets

Bath County, VA

73 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 26% rated Good, 67.1% Fair, 6.8% Poor.

73
Public bridges: 26%
Good condition: 6.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Bath 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.

104th
of 129 on Poor share: 6.8%
Poor-condition share: 73
public highway bridges: 1955
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.

Bath County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bath County ranks #104 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.8%). Bath County, Virginia contains 73 public highway bridges. Roughly 26% are rated “Good,” 67.1% “Fair,” and 6.8% “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

Public highway bridges in Bath County

Good condition

26%

19 of 73 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67.1%

49 of 73 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.8%

5 of 73 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#104 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 73 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

26% (19)

Fair

67.1% (49)

Poor

6.8% (5)

Bath County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,377 vehicle crossings a day

That is 12% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 675 crossings a day against 201 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 73 of 73 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

68.5% of Bath County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

50 of the 73 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 26% 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 46.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD over GUYS RUN, built 1932, carries 1,574 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,377 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

3
1930s

31
1950s

12
1970s

12
1980s

5
1990s

4
2000s

2
2010s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 42.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1955, 19 years older than the Virginia average of 1974.

How Bath County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Bath County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1955 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 17 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bath County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Dickenson County	76	7.9%	90.8%	1.3%	1970
Bath County (this page)	73	26%	67.1%	6.8%	1955
Buckingham County	72	45.8%	51.4%	2.8%	1971
Orange County	71	26.8%	70.4%	2.8%	1970
Appomattox County	68	45.6%	52.9%	1.5%	1975
Nottoway County	67	35.8%	59.7%	4.5%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (73 bridges here).

Stone County, AR · 73 bridges
Levy County, FL · 73 bridges
Putnam County, FL · 73 bridges
Dade County, GA · 73 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1955 here).

Brown County, TX · avg 1955 · 223 bridges
Beadle County, SD · avg 1955 · 152 bridges
Boone County, IA · avg 1955 · 135 bridges
Duval County, TX · avg 1955 · 121 bridges

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

All 73 Good 19 Fair 49 Poor 5

Fair-condition bridges (49)

Sort:

Bath County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bath County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,377 vehicle crossings a day

68.5% of Bath County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 46.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bath County compares with Virginia'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 (49)

FOREST ROAD

CROOKED SPUR RD

SAM SNEAD HWY

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

DOUTHAT ROAD

BLU GRASS HLLOW RD

SUGAR HOLLOW ROAD

MTN VALLEY HWY

DEERFIELD ROAD

MTN VALLEY HWY

DOUTHAT ROAD

LITTLE VALLEY ROAD

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

BACOVA JUNCTION RD

DOUTHAT ROAD

INDIAN DRAFT ROAD

BOLAR DRAFT

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

MTN VALLEY HWY

DOUTHAT ROAD

LITTLE GIBRALTER

DOUTHAT ROAD

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

DRY RUN RD

SCOTTSTOWN DRAFT

COWPASTURE RVR HWY

DOUTHAT ROAD

RICHARDSON GORGE

INDIAN DRAFT

RIVER ROAD

GATEWOOD DR

SAM SNEAD HWY

BACK CREEK RD

JACKSON RIVER TPKE

BOLAR DRAFT RD

BACK CREEK ROAD

LWR BACK CREEK RD

RICHARDSON GORGE

BACK CREEK ROAD

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

SAM SNEAD HWY

WESTMINSTER ROAD

INDIAN DRAFT ROAD

MOUNTAIN VALLEY RD

RICHARDSON GORGE

INDIAN DRAFT ROAD

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