There is perhaps no more powerful a symbol of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure than a bridge that isn’t safe to cross. Very occasionally, the worst happens. Earlier this year, the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed, on the same day President Joe Biden was scheduled to deliver a speech in the city about infrastructure funding.

How big is the problem? Maps and data can help us understand its scale and distribution. We used Department of Transportation data to examine the nation’s bridge inventory. As we show in this animated map, there are over 200 bridges in the country that are at least 100 years old, currently receive a condition rating of “poor,” and carry a significant number of vehicles. Is yours one of the 4 million that pass over them on any given day?

For a deeper look at the U.S. Bridge Inventory in an interactive map, visit: https://links.esri.com/USBridgeInventory To learn more about where the data came from and how to create animated maps like this one, visit: https://esri.social/AUKA50JtXAk

This animated map was made using Esri’s ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Maps for Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe After Effects, and Maxon Cinema 4D. Please visit http://ow.ly/fm2950xgu0B for more information about ArcGIS Pro and http://ow.ly/ARNt50le6GN to learn more about ArcGIS Maps for Adobe Creative Cloud.

Music: Zombie Funk by Steve Poloni