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[VinWij]

Yesterday I was sieged twice, and both times there was an issue with bridges trying to either smash or trap the invaders. Just to be sure: I did link all the bridges to the correct lever, and the bridges that survived still worked afterwards.

First I was sieged by a group of hammer-goblins with their captain riding a Jabberer. I closed off the main entrance and opened a winding corridor completely covered by atom smashers, which were waiting openen. The entire group of about 20 goblins and their captain came in and I hit the switch. The bridges closed and smashed almost all goblins, but to my surprise the bridge that hit the captain fell apart, leaving some stones and a mechanism. But, the casualties were enough to send them running, so I was saved.

But, because the atom smasher somehow failed, I decide to build a drowning chamber in front of the entrance. I set up some pumps next to the giant lake shore I embarked upon, and made a walled of section with two bridges on each end that would trap anything inside when they are up. I'm almost done and the next siege comes: 40 swordgoblins ALL riding Jabberers. That means my atom smasher is useless and I need my drowning chamber finished. When they almost enter my chamber I also notice some trolls, and they are supposed to be building destroyers, so I hope that the chamber floods quickly enough before they wreck the bridge. When the Jabberers run into the chamber I pull the switch and....... Nothing happens! (the switch was pulled) When they are already halfway into my fort I pull the switch again, and one bridge goes up while the other stays down. Then I notice that the bridge that stayed down had a Jabberer standing on it. Weren't bridges supposed to toss things around that were on them when they open? So.... Again my defenses thwarted.

I'm replacing the drawbridges by a different system using retracting drawbridges and gaps so I don't have this again, but I'm puzzled by why all this happened. This doesn't seem to be working as specified, or am I missing something here?

[Di]

This must have been really fun 
What you are missing is that big enough enemies are immune to bridges (and bridges won't operate if one of these stands on it), and judging by your experience jabbers are big enough.
And probably you should not attempt to crush titans, FBs or clowns either.

[Ubiq]

Drawbridges won't raise or fall on creatures that are above a certain size; this was done in a previous version to prevent people from exploiting them to kill demons. Jabberers are apparently large enough to trigger that.

That's why you should always back up more intricate traps with good, old-fashioned weapon and cage traps.

[shadowform]

What I've started doing is, instead of using bridges beneath the critters, put bridges above the critters.  Put a few supports on your walkway or wherever your bridge would go, and then build some bridges 1 Z-level above it out to where you can build flooring on top of them.  Once the floor is complete, rig the supports to fail as per usual and pull up the bridges so passing bowmen can't slip a lucky shot into the innards of your fort.  This has the benefit of automatically solving any issues with building destroyers as well, and since the bridges don't provide support, it also gives you a convenient way to 'reload' the trap without having to build stairs and then deconstruct them.