Card game - Bridge

[Lisa May]

In which country did the card game Bridge orginate?

[Sludge]

The beginnings of Bridge date back to the early 16th century, although at that time it was called Whist and was played by entirely by the British.The first book devoted to Whist appeared in the year 1742, called Edmond Hoyle's Short Treatise, and, according to all players of the time, became a best seller. The first game of duplicate Whist was played in London in 1857, and incorporated a system eliminating much of the luck involved in which card each player is dealt. However, nobody remembers who invented the first deck of cards and nobody remembers who named the suits and designed the graphics. Whist evolved and grew steadily in popularity. Early in the 1890's, Bridge appeared both in  America and in England. The game underwent many changes until the American Harold S. Vanderbilt perfected a new form of Bridge in 1925. It incorporated many of the most popular principles and also produced a scoring table. He succeeded so well that his game of "Contract Bridge" became the staple diet of card players everywhere. The word "Bridge" comes from Russian Whist, called "biritch," meaning announcer or herald. Bridge players announce their contract bids.

[Chillum]

Contact Bridge was supposedly invented on a Paddle-Steamer travelling up the Mississippi, according to one book I have at home.

[Sludge]

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (July 6, 1884 - July 4, 1970) of Newport RI, was a bridge authority whose revisions of auction bridge scoring principles created modern contract bridge, also a system-maker and a champion player. Vanderbilt took up bridge seriously in 1906,  During 1910-1920 the contract bridge principle � counting only bid tricks toward game � was often proposed and rejected, except for the limited success of Plafond. Experimenting with the proposed new game while on a cruise late in 1925, Vanderbilt originated the factors of vulnerability and inflated slam bonuses. He produced a scoring table so balanced as to make nearly every aggressive or sacrifice bid an approximately even bet, allowing just enough differential to permit the exercise of nice judgment. Vanderbilt devised the first unified system of bidding, and was solely responsible for the artificial 1 bid to show a strong hand, the negative 1 response, the strong (16- to 18-point) notrump on balanced hands only, and the weak two-bid opening. Vanderbilt was a member of the Laws Committee of the Whist Club of New York that made the American laws of contract bridge (1927, 1931) and the first international code (1932). He then became chairman of that committee, and drafted the international codes of 1935, 1948 and 1949. He remained co-chairman of the National Laws Commission of the ACBL for the 1963 laws. In 1928 Vanderbilt presented the Harold S. Vanderbilt Cup for the national team-of-four championship now known as the Vanderbilt. This became, and still is, the most coveted American team trophy. As a player, Vanderbilt always ranked high. In 1932 and 1940 he won his own Vanderbilt Cup. He played by choice only in the strongest money games, and was a consistent winner. In 1941 he retired from tournament bridge, but he continued to play in the most expert rubber bridge games, in clubs and at home.

[Peter Pedant]

If you scroll down, this question has been asked before.

Somewhere.

I think bridge originated on a cruise

I use the Eli Culbertson book - that's because I am about 150 years old, and that had it there -

Other than that I doont have much to add besides contract bridge not being the first bridge game by along chalk.