Meaning
To deal with a problem only once it actually happens, rather than worrying about it prematurely.
It’s typically offered as gentle advice against speculative anxiety — not denial that a problem might arise, but a refusal to spend energy on it before it’s real.
Origin
The proverb appeared in American print by January 1849, in New York’s “The Independent,” with a similar version following in the Vermont Chronicle later that year. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recorded it in an 1850 journal entry as an already-established saying, then featured it in his 1851 poem “The Golden Legend”: “Don’t cross the bridge till you come to it, is a proverb old and of excellent wit.” Despite Longfellow’s description of it as “old,” no earlier source has been confirmed, and the phrase’s actual roots remain, fittingly, a problem nobody has definitively solved.
Examples
“What if the client says no?” “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”
I’m not going to worry about next year’s budget yet — we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
She prefers to cross that bridge when she comes to it rather than plan for every possible outcome.
A: “But what if it rains on the wedding day?” B: “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Frequently asked questions
What does 'Cross that bridge when you come to it' mean?
To deal with a problem only once it actually happens, rather than worrying about it prematurely.
It’s typically offered as gentle advice against speculative anxiety — not denial that a problem might arise, but a refusal to spend energy on it before it’s real.