[1] Bridges received his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of California at Berkeley (BS electrical engineering 1956; MS 1957; PhD 1962).

[4] His work at Caltech included microwaves, millimeter waves, lasers, optics, and opto-electronics.

In the early 1980s he recruited female undergraduate advisees and reactivated the Society for Women Engineers Chapter at Caltech.

In 1977, Bridges was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for the development of practical lasers using oscillation in noble gas ions and for contributions to electro-optic systems.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he was on the committee of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board 1985-89.