Chelsea says that after moving from the Midwest to Norfolk, Virginia, she was confused by traffic reports indicating that a local bridge was open. Turns out the bridge is a drawbridge, and by open, the announcers were saying that the bridge was lifted for boats and barges, and therefore not open to cars. This is an example of polysemy, or the fact that words have more than one meaning. It’s also an example of a Janus word, also known as an antagonym or an enantiodrome, such as cleave, which can mean either to stick together or to split. This is part of a complete episode.
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I don’t know if this is at all how it is used in practice, but I would take ‘the bridge is closed’ to mean it might be closed due to repairs being done to the actual structure of the bridge, or the roads on, or leading to it, making it impossible to cross by whatever mode of transportation. FOr example, the bridges could be closed to car traffic, but still have a side strip open for pedestrians or bicyclists, as would not be uncommon in Amsterdam. Or it can be closed in one direction, but crossable the other way. If this is the case in English, the way it is in Dutch, then that could also explain why the traffic announcers landed on the side of ‘the bridge is open’, to mean temporarily closed for land traffic.