The Secret Life of Bridges

This amazing animated map visualization shows the cumulative growth of bridges in the U.S. since 1800. The map reveals the development of mass transport over the last two centuries and the enormous role that bridges play in the U.S. economy.

The animation is just one of a number of impressive mapped visualizations in Esri's Secret Life of Bridges. The Secret Life of Bridges is an Esri story-map which looks at the history of bridge construction and also explores the current condition of the country's contemporary bridges. There are over 618,000 bridges in the United States. Esri says that "roughly one out of every 13 bridges - about 46,000 in total - are considered to be in poor condition". 

Using interactive mapped visualizations of the grades awarded to bridges every four years by the American Society of Civil Engineers Esri has identified the areas of the country with the highest proportion of bridges in a poor condition. This helps to pinpoint the regions of the United States which are most in need of investment. The Secret Life of Bridges includes an interactive map which colors each county based on the percentage of its bridges in a poor condition. Click on a county on this map and you can view the country's total number of bridges, the average age of the bridges and the percentage deemed to be in a poor condition.