Freud lists four meanings of the bridge symbol:
(1) It may represent the male sexual organ, which ‘bridges the gap’ between male and female sexual partners.
(2) It may also symbolize birth - that is, the crossing from ‘the other world’ to this, or from womb to independent existence.
(3) It may represent (something that leads to) death - that is, a return to the womb, or to ‘the other world’, ‘the other side’.
(4) It may symbolize any sort of transition in the dreamer’s life. Freud gives the example of a woman who wants to be a man, and consequendy dreams of bridges that don’t quite reach the other side of the river. However, the symbolized change may be something that can be achieved more easily, but still possibly requiring will and determination; for example, a change of lifestyle, or a passing from middle years into old age.
To Freud’s list we may add the following:
(5) The bridge is a means of crossing a river, and even perhaps crossing from one country to another - foreign, new, strange - country. It may therefore svmbolize a critical juncture in the dreamer’s life, a situation that calls for a definitive decision, a decision which may be of such a radical kind that it could well be described figuratively as entering a new country.
(6) If the bridge you are crossing seems in danger of collapsing, this may reflect your anxiety about a transition in your life: for example, about whether you are going to be able to go through with a change from living on your own to living with a partner (or the reverse); from one job to another; from one set of values to another.