stud 12 by a single cut line and displaced slightly out of the plane of the web 20 of the stud 12 during the punching operation displacing the tab 28 out of the plane of the web 20 allows the user to easily bend the tab 28 down to the horizontal position as shown in fig3 for the installation of the bridging member 26 this bending of the tab can be accomplished by slipping a tool in the space between the tab 28 and the web 20 to provide the leverage to bend the tab 28 down to the horizontal position in order to make the bending of the tab 28 even easier it is preferred if the anticipated bend line of the tab 28 is provided with a slot or cut through such as the slot 32 this allows the location of the bend line to be predicted the provision of this cut through or slot 32 also allows the tab 28 to be bent squarely to provide for a secure connection of the bridging member 26 this is of particular use with the heavier gauge studs such as 14 or 16 gauge as the use of the slot allows the tab to be bent over more easily as illustrated in particular in fig4 and 5 once the tab 28 has been bent into the horizontal position the bridging member 26 is inserted through the openings 24 and attached to the tab 28 by means of screws 34 this provides for a secure attachment of the bridging member 26 to the stud 12 a second embodiment of a metal stud of the present invention is illustrated in fig6 through 10.