One of the first few Protestant missionaries to arrive in China prior to the First Opium War, Bridgman was a pioneering scholar and cultural intermediary, and laid the foundations for American sinology.

Bridgman preached in a church among the Factories on Whampoa (Huangpu), near Canton, his "simple, pious and judicious character" impressing William John, 9th Lord Napier of Merchiston, the First Chief Superintendent of the British Trade there, and, in September 1834, upon the latter's return to Macau, he particularly called upon Bridgman to attend upon him every evening in his last days before succumbing to typhoid.

In 1840, Bridgman was part of a group of four people including Walter Henry Medhurst, Charles Gutzlaff, and John Robert Morrison who cooperated to translate the Bible into Chinese.

The translation of the Hebrew part was done mostly by Gutzlaff from the Netherlands Missionary Society, with the exception that the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua were done by the group collectively.

This translation, completed in 1847 is very famous due to its adoption by the revolutionary peasant leader Hong Xiuquan of the Taipingtianguo movement (Taiping Rebellion) as some of the reputed early doctrines of the organization.

[4] After her husband's death Eliza moved to Peking, secured substantial property and started Bridgman Academy, noted for educating a large number of Chinese women leaders.