Guides · Overpass Bridges

How to play Overpass Bridges.

Overpass is Bridges with one rule bent: somewhere on the board, exactly one bridge passes over another. Every other rule holds, so you play it like classic until the numbers force a crossing.

About 5 minutes · Know classic Bridges first

The board.

Thirteen islands on a 9 by 9 grid, numbers from 1 to 6. It looks like a classic board, and mostly plays like one.

An Overpass Bridges board in Pocketful with thirteen numbered islands and no bridges — Overpass, Starter level 1.

The rules.

Every island gets exactly its number of bridges, at most two per pair, and all islands end up connected. Exactly one place on the board has a bridge crossing another.

One crossing, no more and no fewer. When you draw it, the app lifts one bridge over the other so you can see which is which.

Start like classic.

The islands with only one way out go first, crossing or not. A 1 with a single neighbour has no choice.

The Overpass board with three single-neighbour islands ringed

The Overpass board with the 3 ringed and its two possible bridges dashed

The crossing.

The rules force a crossing when an island's number cannot be met without a bridge passing through another. Look for a bridge that has to be drawn and has a bridge in its way.

The Overpass board with the vertical bridge passing over the horizontal one

Common questions.

Can there be two crossings?

No. Exactly one. If your solution needs two, an earlier bridge is in the wrong place.

Which bridge goes on top?

It does not matter for the puzzle; the app draws one over the other so the crossing is visible.