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During a one-to-one technical chat with my client, he sent me a meeting link and texted me:

Jump into the bridge.

Is he trolling me (as there was a particular issue that had been left unresolved for a long time)? Or is it a normal phrase that is used to ask a person to join a meeting?

Cave Johnson
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Muthukamatchi Ganesan
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    The two answers below rephrasing this as "please join the conference call" are perfectly correct, but I would like to point out that either your client used a very unusual preposition, or you misheard him. If I were to say this to someone I would say jump on* the bridge* or jump onto* the bridge; I expect that your client actually said jump onto the bridge*. – Dan Bron Feb 02 '16 at 07:48
  • @DanBron: Thanks for the information. As I mentioned in the post i was in chat with my client, he sent that jump into the bridge only. – Muthukamatchi Ganesan Feb 02 '16 at 10:08
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    @MuthukamatchiGanesan Maybe your client needs to come to ELL himself ;) – Insane Feb 02 '16 at 11:30
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    I thought your question was about the Three Billy Goats Gruff! – CJ Dennis Feb 02 '16 at 11:45
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    This bridge refers to a network bridge, not a metaphorical bridge. I have heard people say join the bridge, jump into is unusual, but it wouldn't bother me much if someone used it. – Masked Man Feb 02 '16 at 15:42
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    "i" and "o" are right next to each other on a keyboard. Most likely he meant "Jump onto the bridge", which as @DanBron said makes more sense – JasonCG Feb 02 '16 at 17:00
  • @JasonCG: This is valid point – Muthukamatchi Ganesan Feb 03 '16 at 06:31
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    It may be no troll, but still a strange thing to say to non-native speakers. Indeed I would not have known what it meant either. – RedSonja Feb 03 '16 at 08:25
  • @RedSonja I work with non/native speakers from around the world, and I typically do not alter my language or speak any differently to them than I do to my native English speaking colleagues. I use all the same words and idioms. It would not occur to me (in the moment) that such an idiom or construction would be hard to understand for a non-native speaker, because I'm not thinking in those terms while I'm conducting my business. – Dan Bron Feb 03 '16 at 12:55
  • I see it differently. I am a native speaker, and live among persons who are not. If I were to speak as I do among other Brits then no-one here would understand half of what I say, and some would understand none at all. As the go-to Brit it is part of my job to write and speak clearly whenever I use English. Not just so they understand me, but also because they learn phrases and idioms and re-use them, which can be painful for me sometimes if I don't watch out. – RedSonja Feb 03 '16 at 13:11

3 Answers3

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No, he didn't troll.

Yes, this is the normal term used to ask a person to join the conference call/meeting.

Bridge is a common term used in the companies instead of the Conference call.

So he is asking you to join the conference call, and not any insult or troll.

As source from the wiki about the conference call, the bridge is defined as:

Conference calls can be designed so that the calling party calls the other participants and adds them to the call; however, participants are usually able to call into the conference call themselves by dialing a telephone number that connects to a "conference bridge"

Arulkumar
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    Based on the upvotes, I don't doubt your answer. I wonder if it might be a regional idiom, though. I've participated in many conference calls with people from all over the USA and can't recall ever hearing it referred to as a bridge. – whywasinotconsulted Feb 02 '16 at 21:40
  • I definitely agree with whywasinotconsulted. – Panzercrisis Feb 02 '16 at 22:21
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    I've been in many international conference calls, quite a few with the US, some involving people from the UK -- some involving people in four different cities across three English-speaking countries... and I've never heard this term used. (I'm not saying it isn't used, but it may be somewhat regional or more used in a particular industry perhaps). – Glen_b Feb 03 '16 at 03:41
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    Have worked with English speaking people from a number of different origins and lived in English speaking countries for the largest part of my ~20 year professional career, never heard this term (as in "jump on the bridge") used until last night in a group chat around a conference call full of people from the UK (working around the Birmingham area), nobody questioned what it meant and it seemed to have been understood correctly. I had to look it up tho as the "literal" meaning didn't make much sense to me in context. – OnlyF Jun 15 '18 at 05:07
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If he wanted to "Troll" or insult you, he would have used the colloquial idiom

Go jump off the bridge.

in which case, he wouldn't send you a link to a web meeting (Unless the link is to a video in which he would swearing the living crap out of you, haha).

Free Dictionary defines 'bridge' as

  • a connecting, transitional, or intermediate route.
  • to join by or as if by a bridge.

The client referred the "Bridge" as the link between you and him. The very communication link (web conference link) is referred to as the bridge as it connects the both of you, sitting far apart. So the comm lines acts as the 'bridge' between the both of you. Since the link is given to you, the connection is already established. This means that the 'bridge' is already built and all that needs to be done now is for you to be a part of it. That is why he has used the phrase:

Jump into the bridge.

To "jump" is to join. So no, nobody is trolling you. Cheers.

Varun Nair
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    Just to add that the bridge is the command and control sector of a ship, which is why it is into in the OP's sentence. I.e. 'Jump into the command and control centre of the business'. –  Feb 02 '16 at 15:18
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Depending on the context and his attitude towards the situation he may have used the idiom:

Jump into the breach.

In historic combat, a breach (e.g. a hole in a defensive wall) is where a lot of the fighting would be.

There is a quote "Once more unto the breach" (from Shakespeare's Henry V) that could cause some to use "into the breach" to mean "get involved".

StuperUser
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    This strikes me as unlikely. It is hardly colloquial, and one hardly hears a phrase other than "once more unto/into the breach". – James Kingsbery Feb 02 '16 at 21:26
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    This actually strikes me as considerably more likely than the highly upvoted answer, at least in my office; but as I commented there, it could be a regional thing. – whywasinotconsulted Feb 02 '16 at 21:41
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    Yep, I had this same thought. ... @James -- I hear "jump into the breach" quite regularly in a work context. If a key person is out of action for some reason, or something goes badly wrong so that some people need to stop what they're normally doing to help deal with the problem, people "jump into the breach" until the current crisis is under control. I can see someone not familiar with English idiom making the mistake of thinking "breach" was "bridge". So to me this seems to be the more likely explanation. – Glen_b Feb 02 '16 at 22:58
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    Why the downvote? This is a well formatted, referenced, accurate answer that explains what may have been said and clearly explains a confusing idiom. – StuperUser Feb 03 '16 at 09:00