re: Question about Saving Private Ryan

Bridges work both ways.

The Allies needed that bridge just as much as the Germans did. The plan was to delay the Germans long enough for reinforcements to arrive and push them out of there.

If Miller and his men would have blown the bridge before the Germans ever got there, several German armored battalions would have been waiting for the American advance on the opposite side and it would have cost the Americans hundreds of casualties building a bridge, crossing the river, and taking back the town.