Bridge is about as native as an English word can be: Old English brycge, from a Germanic root shared with Dutch brug and German Brücke, going back to a word meaning "log, beam." The original idea is a beam laid across a gap, which is what a bridge was before anyone could build one out of stone.
The spelling is worth stopping on. That -dge is a purely English convention for the sound at the end of bridge, edge and ridge after a short vowel, matched by -tch in watch, ditch and fetch. No other language spells it that way; the digraphs were worked out by English scribes for English sounds, which makes them a reliable sign of a native word. The transferred senses are all much later: the bony upper part of the nose from the early 1400s, the part of a stringed instrument from the late 1300s, and a ship's bridge only from 1843.
bridge (n.1) [structure that affords passage over a ravine or river] Middle English brigge , from Old English brycge , from Proto-Germanic *brugjo (source also of Old Saxon bruggia , Old Norse bryggja , Old Frisian brigge , Dutch brug , Old High German brucca , German Brücke ), from PIE root *bhru "log, beam," hence "wooden causeway" (source also of Gaulish briva "bridge," Old Church Slavonic bruvuno "beam," Serbian brv "footbridge"). The original notion is of a beam or log laid down for crossing. Compare Old Church Slavonic mostu , Serbo-Croatian most "bridge," probably originally "beam" and a loanword from Germanic, related to English mast (n.1). For the vowel evolution, see bury . The meaning "bony upper part of the nose" is from early 15c.; of stringed instruments from late 14c. The bridge of a ship (by 1843) originally was a "narrow raised platform athwart the ship whence the Captain issues his orders" [Sir Geoffrey Callender, "Sea Passages"]. Bridge in steam-vessels is the connection between the paddle-boxes, from which the officer in charge directs the motion of the vessel. [Smyth, "The Sailor's Word-book," 1867] bridge (n.2) [card game] 1886 (perhaps as early as 1843), an alteration of biritch , but the source and meaning of that are obscure. "Probably of Levantine origin, since some form of the game appears to have been long known in the Near East" [OED]. One guess is that it represents Turkish *bir-üç "one-three," because one hand is exposed and three are concealed. The game also was known early as Russian whist (attested in English from 1839). also from 1886 bridge (v.) "build a bridge on or over, span with a bridge," Old English brycgian "to bridge, make a causeway," from bridge (n.). Figurative use is by 1831. Related: Bridged ; bridging .
bridge came in through Old English, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| /dʒ/ after a short vowel | -dgeedge, bridge |
What gives it away on the page
| -dge, -tch | English-only spellings for /dʒ/ and /tʃ/ after a short vowel.edge, bridge, ditch, fetch |
Placing it without the spelling
| one syllable, or two with the stress up front — blunt and concrete | Old Englishwolf, water, knee, bridge |
Old English in the spelling guide · guess another word's family