County profile · official public datasets

Garfield County, WA

54 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.6% rated Good, 50% Fair, 7.4% Poor.

54
Public bridges: 42.6%
Good condition: 7.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Garfield 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.

26th
of 39 on Poor share: 7.4%
Poor-condition share: 54
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Garfield County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Garfield County ranks #26 of 39 Washington counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.4%). Garfield County, Washington contains 54 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.6% are rated “Good,” 50% “Fair,” and 7.4% “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 Garfield County

Good condition

42.6%

23 of 54 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50%

27 of 54 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.4%

4 of 54 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#26 of 39

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

Condition distribution

Share of 54 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

42.6% (23)

Fair

50% (27)

Poor

7.4% (4)

Garfield County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,318 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 330 crossings a day against 288 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 54 of 54 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

61.1% of Garfield County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

33 of the 54 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 42.6% 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 64.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 127 over SNAKE R CENTRAL FERRY, built 1969, carries 845 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,318 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

3
1950s

8
1960s

15
1970s

12
1980s

9
1990s

1
2000s

2
2010s

1
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1969, 6 years older than the Washington average of 1975.

How Garfield County compares with Washington's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Washington counties nearest Garfield County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 38 Washington counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Garfield County and the 5 Washington counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Stevens County	75	40%	48%	12%	1973
Pend Oreille County	71	54.9%	32.4%	12.7%	1981
Garfield County (this page)	54	42.6%	50%	7.4%	1969
Ferry County	53	41.5%	49.1%	9.4%	1972
Douglas County	40	40%	47.5%	12.5%	1965
Wahkiakum County	36	50%	47.2%	2.8%	1969

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WA (54 bridges here).

Rio Blanco County, CO · 54 bridges
Brantley County, GA · 54 bridges
Jones County, GA · 54 bridges
Larue County, KY · 54 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WA (1969 here).

Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges

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

All 54 Good 23 Fair 27 Poor 4

All bridges (54)

Sort:

Garfield County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Garfield County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,318 vehicle crossings a day

61.1% of Garfield County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 64.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Garfield County compares with Washington'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 (54)

BELL PLAIN RD

LOWER DEADMAN 307

LINVILLE GULCH RD

KIRBY-MAYVIEW

8TH STREET

15TH STREET

FAIRGROUNDS RD

WILLOW GULCH RD

HOWELL GRADE RD

TATMAN MTN RD

BREAKDOWN RD

PING GULCH RD

LOWER DEADMAN RD

18 TH STREET

Kirby-Mayview Road

NORTH DEADMAN RD

MEADOW CREEK RD

ALPOWA CREEK RD

NORTH MEADOW GULCH

PING GULCH RD

10TH ST

COLUMBIA STREET

CHARD RD

20 TH STREET

SOUTH SHORE BRIDGE

US 12

CONSTR. FAC. BR.

ALPOWA CREEK RD

6TH STREET

GOULD CITY MAYVIEW

NORTH DEADMAN

LOWER DEADMAN RD

OWENS ROAD

5 TH STREET

SR 127

BELL PLAIN RD

7TH STREET

PEOLA RD

Gould City Mayview

12 TH STREET

MARENGO ROAD

3RD STREET

WEIMER HILL RD

RICKMAN GULCH RD

US 12

HUTCHENS HILL RD

SPILLWAY BRIDGE

GOULD CITY-MAYVIEW

NAV LOCK BRIDGE

HEATON GULCH RD

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