Bridge (disambiguation) - Definition and Overview

Structure

• A bridge is a structure built so that a road, railway, or other transportation route can cross above an obstacle such as a river, valley, or another road.

Card Game

• Bridge or contract bridge is also the name of a card game.
• The form played by four players is rubber bridge, while many players can compete simultaneously in duplicate bridge.
• Historically, "bridge" could also refer to other games that were superseded by contract bridge, notably auction bridge.

Music

• On a musical string instrument, the bridge is the device which anchors the strings at the body end of the strings.
• In song writing, a bridge is an interlude that connects two parts of that song, building a harmonic connection between those parts.

Electronics and computers

• A Wheatstone bridge is a diamond-shaped arrangement of resistors, useful in comparing resistances to high standards of accuracy. If alternating currents are applied and a device used to measure alternating currents is substituted, a similarly arranged bridge may be used to proportionally compare capacitors or inductors.
• A bridge rectifier is a diamond-shaped configuration of diodes used to convert alternating current to direct current.
• In telecommunications, a bridge is an electronic device used to connect two segments of a computer network (combining two networks) or of a telephone network (to support multi-party conference calls). See network bridge.
• In computer science, a bridge pattern is the name of a design pattern for computer programming introduced by the Gang of Four in their book Design Patterns. Its use is to separate an abstraction and its actual implementation into separate class hierarchies.

Ships

• See bridge (ship)

Dentistry

• A dental bridge is a prosthesis used in place of missing teeth.

Finance

• A bridge or bridge loan is the financing for a construction project that is replaced by (paid off with the proceeds of) a mortgage on the property once it is built. It is also used in the financing of new or expanding corporations to keep the company operating between rounds of private placement stock sales (venture capital) or pending an initial public offering (IPO). A bridge loan may also be a short-term loan to cover a gap in time between two long-term loans.

Place name

• Bridge is a place in Kent, England.
• Scotland has many place names in the style of Bridge of Allan.
• Other place names including "bridge", commonly run together with another word, are numerous.