County profile · official public datasets

Essex County, VA

37 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 21.6% rated Good, 73% Fair, 5.4% Poor.

37
Public bridges: 21.6%
Good condition: 5.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Essex 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.

88th
of 129 on Poor share: 5.4%
Poor-condition share: 37
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Essex County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Essex County ranks #88 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.4%). Essex County, Virginia contains 37 public highway bridges. Roughly 21.6% are rated “Good,” 73% “Fair,” and 5.4% “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

Public highway bridges in Essex County

Good condition

21.6%

8 of 37 rated 7-9

Fair condition

73%

27 of 37 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.4%

2 of 37 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#88 of 129

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

Condition distribution

Share of 37 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

21.6% (8)

Fair

73% (27)

Poor

5.4% (2)

Essex County's Poor-condition bridges carry 350 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 175 crossings a day against 3,778 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 37 of 37 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

40.5% of Essex County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

15 of the 37 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 21.6% 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 69.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

GORDONS MILL RD. over PISCATAWAY CREEK, built 1923, carries 242 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 350 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

1
1950s

5
1960s

3
1970s

5
1980s

6
1990s

10
2000s

2
2010s

2
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 6 years newer than the Virginia average of 1974.

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

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Essex County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.4% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Essex County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Cumberland County	39	59%	38.5%	2.6%	1978
Clarke County	38	28.9%	71.1%	0%	1968
Essex County (this page)	37	21.6%	73%	5.4%	1980
Bristol city County	34	35.3%	50%	14.7%	1954
Harrisonburg city County	34	44.1%	41.2%	14.7%	1977
Powhatan County	34	20.6%	73.5%	5.9%	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 Essex 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 Essex County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (37 bridges here).

Sitka City and County, AK · 37 bridges
Suwannee County, FL · 37 bridges
Teton County, ID · 37 bridges
Dickinson County, MI · 37 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 37 Good 8 Fair 27 Poor 2

All bridges (37)

Sort:

Essex County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Essex County's Poor-condition bridges carry 350 vehicle crossings a day

40.5% of Essex County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 69.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Essex 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

All bridges (37)

BLOOMSBURY LN.

HOWERTON RD.

NBL TIDEWATER TRL.

NBL TIDEWATER TRL

NBL TIDEWATER TRL

ESSEX MILL RD.

SCOTTS MILL RD.

BULL NECK RD.

E. QUEEN ST.

CRITENDEN MILL RD.

ISLAND FARM RD.

SBL TIDEWATER TRL

WBL RICH/TAPP HWY

BATTERY RD.

DESHA RD.

EBL RICH. TAPP.HWY

BYRDS BRIDGE RD.

SBL TIDEWATER TRL

NBL ROUTE 0017

SBL TIDEWATER TRL.

N&SBL TIDEWATER TR

SBL ROUTE 0017

WARNING MILL RD.

SBL TIDEWATER TRL

SBL TIDEWATER TRL

NBL TIDEWATER TRL

SBL TIDEWATER TRL

DUNBROOKE ROAD

PILKINGTON ROAD

CHURCH LANE

LATANES MILL RD.

CHURCH LANE

BESTLAND RD.

CHEATWOOD MILL RD

OCCUPACIA ROAD

GORDONS MILL RD.

CHEANEYS BRIDGE RD

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