America has over 600,000 bridges, and most of us cross them without a second thought. We’re sipping coffee, scrolling through a playlist, barely noticing the steel and concrete holding us over rivers, highways, and ravines below. But here’s the thing – a lot of those bridges are in far worse shape than you’d ever guess from the driver’s seat.
In 2024, over 4.9 billion motor vehicle trips were taken daily across the nation’s 623,218 bridges – and of those, nearly 7 percent are rated in poor condition. According to the ASCE’s 2025 report, over 46,000 bridges in the United States are structurally deficient. Some of them are iconic. Some of them you’ve probably crossed yourself. Let’s take a closer look at five that stand out for all the wrong reasons.
1. Pulaski Skyway – Newark to Jersey City, New Jersey: The “Death Highway” in the Sky
Designed by Sigvald Johannesson, the General Casimir Pulaski Skyway opened in 1932 as the last part of the Route 1 Extension, one of the first freeways or “super-highways” in the United States, built to provide a connection to the Holland Tunnel. That sounds impressive, right? Unfortunately, because of two 11-foot wide lanes in each direction, no shoulders, and a breakdown center lane known as “suicide lane,” the bridge has actually been called the “death highway” for decades. The name alone should tell you something.
By the 1950s, the Skyway was averaging over 400 crashes per year. In mid-1956, an aluminum median barrier was added to prevent head-on crashes and the roadway was resurfaced to make it less slippery. The Pulaski Skyway was eventually considered functionally obsolete because it did not meet modern highway bridge standards and was rated structurally deficient in 2007. It serves as an express link for car and bus traffic to and from New York City, carrying around 74,000 vehicles a day. A tragic car crash in 2024 brought these safety concerns back into sharp focus.
2. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge – Staten Island to Brooklyn, New York: Beautiful, Busy, and Broken
There is something almost cruel about the Verrazano. It is gorgeous – sweeping cables, massive towers, a gateway into New York City that looks like something from a postcard. The Verrazano Bridge, connecting Staten Island with Brooklyn, is the busiest in New York State that is rated structurally deficient. It was completed in 1961 and carries, on average, more than 175,000 vehicles every day. That is a staggering number of daily crossings on a bridge officially flagged for structural concerns.
Although New York State has made progress improving its infrastructure over the last decade, it still has roughly 11 percent of its bridges rated as structurally deficient. Of the more than 17,000 bridges in the state, almost 2,000 require significant repairs to make them structurally sound. The bridge has seen many suicides and suicide attempts over the years, including at least three in 2020, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. In 2021, the city began putting up strong steel safety fencing to hopefully prevent more. The structural deficiency designation and the staggering daily traffic load make this one worth watching closely.
3. Arlington Memorial Bridge – Washington, D.C.: Dangerous Right Under Congress’s Nose
Here is a fact that should make you pause. One of America’s most politically symbolic bridges, connecting the nation’s capital directly to Virginia, has long been a documented danger. Despite having the fewest number of deficient bridges in the nation, D.C. topped the list for daily crossings over structurally deficient bridges – and the Arlington Memorial Bridge has been a long-standing danger to those driving across it, despite being right outside the buildings where decisions are made about infrastructure projects.
