Another piss-poor metaphor, but one that does, in a way, get to the heart of the issue. The actual correlation you're looking for is, "Can someone build a bridge without having first seen a bridge?"

Of course, you don't want to actually ask that, because the answer is yes. Bridges are a fairly common idea found anywhere that humanity was ever adressed with the question, "How do I get over that body of water?". These bridges don't all look the same, nor are they all called bridges. Some are better than others, and the method of their creation and use can differ greatly. Certainly no civilization ever jumped from wooden sticks and vines to towering suspension bridges a half mile long. Yet their function is always clearly the same.