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The phrase to cross a bridge when one comes to it, and its variants, mean: to deal with a problem when and if it arises, but not beforehand.
The U.S. poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) wrote that this phrase was a “proverb” in his journal on Monday 29th April 1850—as published in Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with extracts from his journals and correspondence. Edited by Samuel Longfellow (Boston (Massachusetts): Ticknor and Company, 1886) [volume 2, pages 165 & 166]:
22d. The seventy lectures to which I am doomed next year hang over me like a dark curtain. […]
29th. I keep thinking of those impending lectures. Remember the proverb, “Do not cross the bridge till you come to it.” This is one of my defects. My mind reaches forward and anticipates its work, and therefore very often it is done over twice.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase to cross a bridge when one comes to it and variants that I have found:
—Note: This phrase seems to be of American-English origin and to have been popularised by—if not coined in—the essay that was first published in The Independent (New York City, New York, USA) of Thursday 11th January 1849 [cf., below, quotation 1]:
1-: From The Independent (New York City, New York, USA) of Thursday 11th January 1849 [page 24, columns 3 & 4]:
For the Independent.
NEVER CROSS A BRIDGE TILL YOU COME TO IT.“Never cross a Bridge until you come to it!” was the counsel usually given by a patriarch in the ministry to troubled and over-careful Christians. Are you troubled about the future? Do you see difficulties rising in Alpine ranges along your path? Are you alarmed at the state of your business—at the uncertainties hanging over your life—at the dubious prospects in reserve for your children—at the gloomy contingencies which fancy sketches and invests with a sort of life-like reality—at the woes which hang over the cause of the Redeemer, or at any other earthly evil? Do not cross that bridge until you come to it. Perhaps you will never have occasion to cross it; and if you do, you may find that a timid imagination has overrated greatly the toil to be undergone, or has underrated the power of that grace which can lighten the Christian’s every labor. In approaching the Notch of the White Mountains from one direction, the traveler finds himself in the midst of conical hills, which seem to surround him as he advances and forbid further progress. He can see but a short distance along his winding road; […] but a passage discovers itself as he advances. He is neither required to turn back, nor to scale the steep sides of towering hills. His road winds along, preserving for miles almost an exact level. He finds that nothing is gained by crossing a bridge before he comes to it! Such is often the journey of life. How much of its toilsome ruggedness would be relieved by careful attention to the above admonition! Never cross a bridge until you come to it. Or, to express the same counsel in a form that does not involve the charge of a Hibernicism 1, “Be careful of nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep (garrison) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” 2
N. T.
1 The noun Hibernicism designates an idiom or expression characteristic of, or attributed to, Irish speech.
2 This is a quotation from the Epistle to the Philippians, 4:7.
2-: From the following isolated line at the bottom of the first column of the first page of The Vermont Union Whig (Brandon, Vermont, USA) of Wednesday 24th January 1849:
Never cross a bridge till you come to it.
3 to 12-: From reprints of the essay that was first published in The Independent (New York City, New York, USA) of Thursday 11th January 1849 [cf., above, quotation 1]:
3-: From a reprint published in The Vermont Chronicle (Windsor, Vermont, USA) of Wednesday 20th June 1849 [page 1, column 4].
4-: From a reprint published in the Vermont Christian Messenger (Montpelier, Vermont, USA) of Wednesday 27th June 1849 [page 1, column 4].
5-: From a reprint published in The Christian Mirror (Portland, Maine, USA) of Thursday 28th June 1849 [page 196, column 4].
6-: From a reprint published in the Christian Watchman & Christian Reflector (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) of Thursday 5th July 1849 [page 1, column 7].
7-: From a reprint published in the Christian Witness & Church Advocate (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) of Friday 13th July 1849 [page 1, column 7].
8-: From a reprint published in The Norfolk Democrat (Dedham, Massachusetts, USA) of Friday 13th July 1849 [page 1, column 4].
9-: From a reprint published in The Woodstock Mercury (Woodstock, Vermont, USA) of Friday 13th July 1849 [page 1, columns 5 & 6].
10-: From a reprint published in The Semi-Weekly Eagle (Brattleboro, Vermont, USA) of Thursday 19th July 1849 [page 1, column 5].
11-: From a reprint published in The Congregationalist (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) of Friday 20th July 1849 [page 36, column 4].
12-: From a reprint published in the Christian Journal (Columbus, Ohio, USA) of Friday 20th July 1849 [page 160, column 1].
13-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up Scraps of Wisdom, published in the Vermont Phœnix (Brattleboro, Vermont, USA) of Friday 20th July 1849 [page 2, column 2]:
Don’t borrow trouble about the future; it is soon enough to cross a bridge when you come to it.
