New York State Has Some Of America’s Worst And Most Dangerous Bridges

A recent report revealed that New York has some of the worst bridges in the United States. According to the American Road and Transportation Builder's Association, we made the list of the top 10 states with the most bridges in poor conditions. The U.S. Department of Transporation defines poor condition as having,

Advanced section loss, deterioration, spalling, or scour.

New York landed in the #6 spot of states with the largest number of bridges in poor condition. There are 1,702 bridges that were considered poor as of 2021. In 2020, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge over the Hudson River in Orange County was added to the list of bridges that are rated as structurally deficient, or in poor condition. New York also landed at #7, with 9.6 percent, on the list of states with bridge deck areas that are in poor condition.

According to Grunge, these two New York bridges are among the most dangerous in America:

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

Connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island, is the largest suspension bridge on the continent. Thirteen lanes of traffic, on two decks, 228 feet in the air — the Verrazzano-Narrows intimidates even professional drivers and is on Freight Waves', a trucking industry magazine, list of most dangerous bridges for truckers.

George Washington Bridge

It runs over the Hudson River, connecting New York and New Jersey.

Being on the I-95, one of the country's busiest roads, also means the GWB is one of the most congested bridges on the planet. Patch reported that, in addition to horrendous traffic, there are over 100 crashes every year on the road getting on and off the GWB in New York City, noting it as super dangerous in comparison to other routes in the country.

Here are the number of bridges in poor condition around the state (as of June 2021):

Data provided by Federal Highway Administration 

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