Really a starship bridge would be more inside the vessel, but for aesthetics relating to sailing ships, having a bridge that can be prominant and easily located is natural. Let's face the fact that even though the enterprise is'nt designed to enter the atmosphere of a planet, it still is shown as being upright even relation to other spaceships even though there is no up or down in space.Now some ships like the defiant class have enclosed bridges, and less prominant profiles. And in later star trek shows you see the full use of xyz axis manuevering, as well in the jj abrams movies. In real life the beautiful shapes of the trek starships we all love wouldn't be practical designs.

Really, a starship bridge would be more inside the vessel, but for aesthetics relating to sailing ships, having a bridge that can be prominent and easily located is natural. Let's face the fact that even though the Enterprise isn't designed to enter the atmosphere of a planet, it still is shown as being upright even relation to other spaceships even though there is no up or down in space.Now some ships like the defiant class have enclosed bridges, and less prominant profiles. And in later Star Trek shows, you see the full use of XYZ axis manuevering, as well in the J.J. Abrams movies. In real life, the beautiful shapes of the Trek starships we all love wouldn't be practical designs.