Edit; forgot about this as well;
Where would I find this option? I'm still trying to find things like shade smooth/flat too... too many menus! D:Problem 1 - when you bridge it does not merge the edges on the sides. Go to the polygon display options and turn on display border edges and make them thicker and you will see you have open edges after the bridge. A better way to do this in Maya, especially for just filling in one missing polygon is to use the Fill Hole command.