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This is a late reply but hopefully it might help you or someone else.
For those who don't want to read my mammoth post this is the condensed version:
Bridge/Lightroom = good but painfully slow.
Alternatives for PC:
ACDSee Pro ( I use Pro 6.0)
Faststone - Free and fast.
Alternatives for Mac:
ACDSee Pro ( I use 2.0)
Xee - Free and fast, but few features
On to the full version. 
First, my experience with Bridge/Lightroom then further down my solution:
Bridge/lightroom both have good file management tools and lots of other features but as you've discovered they are slow.
I've used Lightroom (sparingly) since 3.0 up to 5.0. Only reason I have the latest version now is because i'm subscribing to Adobe CC and I hoped for some improvements regarding speed and workflow but was disappointed. Still slow image to image rendering and still no way to simply browse files without importing them. (or have I missed something?)
Main thing is still that it's slow.
Bridge has been around for a long time now and I've tried using it since my first version which shipped with Adobe Master Collection CS3. I've jumped on every single update Adobe has thrown at it but it is still painfully slow when browsing/viewing images and forget about selecting images based on sharpness as it simply cannot handle proper scaling to screen size on the fly. It has to create preview files first, which I have still not managed to set up in spite of an excess of 100 hours research/re-install/cache purging/mucking with settings etc..
My experience tells me that the only way to accurately gauge focus in Bridge is to zoom in 100%, something that also takes extra time especially with raw files.
I really want to love Bridge since that would mean my Adobe CC subscription would handle everything I need, but no, I simply cannot get around the fact that Bridge is too slow to be efficient.
For the record my systems are not slow, the specs are:
PC:
QuadCore i7 2.8GHz
12GB RAM
120GB SSD system drive
Seagate 3TB 7200rpm photo drives
Eizo 24" flat monitor (don't have the model nr right now but it's a S-PVA panel with good colors)
Mac:
Macbook Pro Retina 15"
2.6 GHz i7
16 GB Ram
256GB SSD
3:rd party solutions I use/used that you might give a try:
My first choice is ACDSEE - I currently own ACDSEE Pro 6.0 for PC and 2.0 for Mac. I mainly use it to go through my memory cards during import and for that it is MILES AHEAD Lightroom/Bridge.
There is a decent Categories feature that I sometimes use to keep track of where certain types of images are. For example I've created sets of categories for different clients to keep track of my best images for each client.
I usually go through my memory cards and simply hit CTRL+B to save to save selected photos into the image basket, this gives me a virtual selection that I can choose to copy elsewhere or perhaps open in Photoshop straight from the memory card.
It also serves as a blazing fast image viewer, it handles most image formats including jpg/png/gif/psd etc. Best of all, it's REALLY FAST compared to Lightroom and Bridge. It even handles quite big .PSD's however the bigger they get the longer it takes obviously.
There are key differences between the PC version and Mac version with the PC version being better according to me. One example: The PC version uses two different keyboard shortcuts for the virtual "Image Basket", CTRL+B to add images, ALT+X to remove them from the basket. The Mac version(2.0) only has a "Tag" function where adding/removing images from the tagged list is done with the same shortcut which means you have to exit fullscreen in order to be 100% sure you have added/removed the tag. Also I had to reassign the shortcut because the standard one did nothing.
I've used ACDSee on the PC about 7 years, it's been really buggy at times, most notably known for "ragequitting" on you while browsing images but the last 3 versions or so have behaved really well. I have still experienced errors forcing me to shut it down but it is now a rare problem and I prefer that risk over the inexcusable slow Bridge/Lightroom. Pro 2.0 is my first experience with it on Mac and it still needs some tweaks but some of my gripes are partly related to getting used to the Mac interface.
Free alternatives that I've used and recommend:
For PC I would say Faststone is a really good option, it's fast, reads most image formats, has a tagging function which gives a graphic que wether or not the image is tagged (small pink square appears in the upper left corner if I remember correctly). It has lots of features easily accessed in fullscreen by simply moving the cursor to either side of the screen. Oh and it displays the images way sharper than Bridge/Lightroom without the need to zoom in 100%. Just as with ACDSee it's often possible to determine the sharpness of an image with the image fitted to the screen size, without going 100%.
For Mac I initially wanted a Faststone alternative since ACDSee wasn't available at first. My research led me to "Xee", a free image viewer that works well although lacks thumbnail view and has nothing equivalent of the Image Basket or tag function for ACDSee.
Ok, I think I've done my share of typing today, I hope someone finds this information useful.
If you read this Adobe; C'mon... shape up Bridge and Lightroom already, you've had many years to get it right but alot of users still see poor performance in those otherwise great programs.
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