I posted about issues I encountered when I built bridges across a river and found the laborers delivered materials to either side of the bridge, even crossing an imaginary bridge as if they were floating on air. I believe I found why this happened but please forgive me if this was already resolved since I don't always come back to check issue resolutions. My OCD kicked in, however, and I couldn't let this rest until I found out why.
If I tell workers to build a road, build a stockpile or clear across the river BEFORE the bridge is constructed they become homeless and possibly starve. My work-around at the time was to bring up the debug menu and turn off effects of cold and starvation.
However, if I do not give any orders to build or demolish or clear anything across the river the laborers do not cross, they do not become homeless and they don't starve.
Thanks for your patience and again forgive me if this was already resolved.
Bingo. This was part of the problem I was running into and no one else seemed to have. Thanks Don! I thought I had some kind of unique game bug.
I came to a slightly different resolution but the same conclusions. I posted elsewhere about it. I discovered that two things trigger the homeless tag. Carrying the materials across a bridgeless river erases them from community memory so they come back homeless and a narrow wooden bridge sometimes will as well for some weird reason.
After fighting with it for several days I discovered a work around. If I build a stone stepping bridge across any river first they can use it to cross back and forth safely and stay connected. After that I build a wide stone bridge across the main rivers instead of any other type and their happy and undivorced. Since the stepping stone bridge can be build across anything it works as a temp bridge to get things safely set up (and it's cheap in cost) then once done, I can tear it out later if needed for looks or trader passage.
