The Brooklyn Bridge, the 123-year-old span between Brooklyn and Manhattan that to this day is a treasured tourist attraction, landmark, and transportation workhorse, is rusting under a coat of paint that hasn’t been refreshed since 1991.

The city’s most recent annual report on the condition of bridges and tunnels, just out, rates the Brooklyn Bridge’s condition as a 3.15 on a scale of one to seven, with one as “potentially hazardous” and seven as “new.” A three rating is used to indicate that a bridge has experienced “serious deterioration,” according to the report.

A spokesman for the City Department of Transportation, which maintains the bridge, Craig Chin, said the bridge would be painted in 2009 as part of a $236 million project that also will include improvements to the bridge’s decks, approaches, and ramps. He said the rust visible under the peeling paint on the bridge’s structure has not adversely affected its safety.

“The Brooklyn Bridge is structurally safe,” he said.

He said bridge users concerned about graffiti on the bridge can call the city’s 311 telephone line and the Department of Transportation will dispatch maintenance crews to remove it.

Under the city’s four-category system of rating bridges — poor, fair, good, and very good — the Brooklyn Bridge qualified as “fair” in the most recent annual report, which covers the year 2005.

The rust, peeling paint, and graffiti are visible from the bridge’s pedestrian and bicycle walkway, which gets lots of press attention during protest marches and transit strikes, but also is used daily by tourists, by locals for exercise runs and walks, and by a small group of commuters.

The president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, said in a statement to The New York Sun: “The Brooklyn Bridge is truly a bridge to the world and far more than the sum of its 15,000 tons, it is a living monument to the great vision and ingenuity that define Brooklyn. It is vital that the bridge be maintained with the attention, care, and respect deserving of a world famous symbol of the world class city of Brooklyn.”

The city’s bridge and tunnel report for 2005 lists an estimated cost to paint the bridge of $85 million. That’s an increase from an estimate of $74 million in the 2004 report. A paint job has been listed as “in design” for the bridge since the city’s bridge and tunnel report for 2002.

Mr. Chin said the bridge’s last paint job was between 1985 and 1991 under a state contract.

A spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County in Northern California, Mary Currie, said that bridge is painted “constantly,” “all the time” by a staff of painters.

See photo slideshow.