text: The trilogy derives its name from the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, because in the trilogy it was abandoned in an earthquake and has become a massive shantytown and site of improvised shelter. The bridge becomes a pivotal location in Virtual Light and All Tomorrow's Parties. The 'bridge' may also be interpreted as a metaphor for the nascent technologies bridging contemporaneous life and the highly advanced future depicted in the Sprawl trilogy, where cyberspace and nanotechnology are fully developed and commonplace.
  Characters in each novel interact in a cyberspace construct of Kowloon Walled City, which is initially described as an inverted kill file. The walled city shares a number of features with the bridge itself, including an emphasis on self-governance and efficiency in user-construction.
  Characters
  The novels of the Bridge trilogy loosely share a common cast of characters. Former police officer Berry Rydell and bicycle courier Chevette Washington occupy central roles in the first and third novels. Researcher Colin Laney, who has a mysterious ability to identify patterns in vast tracts of information, appears in Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties. Other recurring characters include Rei Toei, an AI pop star, and Shinya Yamazaki, an existential sociologist.
  Critical reception and influence
  Canadian Poet Douglas Barbour said of the trilogy that it "has all the stylistic verve of his earlier work, but it asks some tougher questions, explores character more deeply, and savagely interrogates our star-obsessed society."  Virtual Light, the first novel in the series, was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1994.