diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/CatalystInstanceImpl.java b/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/CatalystInstanceImpl.java
index 18291a66f..40618ac95 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/CatalystInstanceImpl.java
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/CatalystInstanceImpl.java
@@ -235,6 +235,7 @@ public class CatalystInstanceImpl implements CatalystInstance {
         new Runnable() {
           @Override
           public void run() {
+            mBridge.destroy();
             mBridge.dispose();
             bridgeDisposeFuture.set(null);
           }
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/ReactBridge.java b/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/ReactBridge.java
index 89b6870be..1e9fe6748 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/ReactBridge.java
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/bridge/ReactBridge.java
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ public class ReactBridge extends Countable {
   public native void stopProfiler(String title, String filename);
   private native void handleMemoryPressureModerate();
   private native void handleMemoryPressureCritical();
+  public native void destroy();
 
   /**
    * This method will return a long representing the underlying JSGlobalContextRef pointer or
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.cpp b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.cpp
index 1c1a2bf34..ed758d1f0 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.cpp
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.cpp
@@ -22,8 +22,7 @@ Bridge::Bridge(JSExecutorFactory* jsExecutorFactory, Callback callback) :
 
 // This must be called on the same thread on which the constructor was called.
 Bridge::~Bridge() {
-  *m_destroyed = true;
-  m_mainExecutor.reset();
+  CHECK(*m_destroyed) << "Bridge::destroy() must be called before deallocating the Bridge!";
 }
 
 void Bridge::loadApplicationScript(const std::string& script, const std::string& sourceURL) {
@@ -132,4 +131,10 @@ void Bridge::callNativeModules(const std::string& callJSON, bool isEndOfBatch) {
   m_callback(parseMethodCalls(callJSON), isEndOfBatch);
 }
 
+void Bridge::destroy() {
+  *m_destroyed = true;
+  m_mainExecutor->destroy();
+  m_mainExecutor.reset();
+}
+
 } }
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.h b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.h
index 3868d507f..16edc62ac 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.h
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Bridge.h
@@ -74,6 +74,11 @@ public:
    * TODO: get rid of isEndOfBatch
    */
   void callNativeModules(const std::string& callJSON, bool isEndOfBatch);
+
+  /**
+   * Synchronously tears down the bridge and the main executor.
+   */
+  void destroy();
 private:
   Callback m_callback;
   // This is used to avoid a race condition where a proxyCallback gets queued after ~Bridge(),
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Executor.h b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Executor.h
index 036b6414e..6f392a3cd 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Executor.h
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Executor.h
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ public:
   virtual void handleMemoryPressureCritical() {
     handleMemoryPressureModerate();
   };
+  virtual void destroy() {};
   virtual ~JSExecutor() {};
 };
 
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.cpp b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.cpp
index 56af90b9b..01ccc8188 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.cpp
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.cpp
@@ -126,17 +126,17 @@ JSCExecutor::JSCExecutor(
 }
 
 JSCExecutor::~JSCExecutor() {
-  try {
-    *m_isDestroyed = true;
-    if (m_messageQueueThread->isOnThread()) {
+  CHECK(*m_isDestroyed) << "JSCExecutor::destroy() must be called before its destructor!";
+}
+
+void JSCExecutor::destroy() {
+  *m_isDestroyed = true;
+  if (m_messageQueueThread->isOnThread()) {
+    terminateOnJSVMThread();
+  } else {
+    m_messageQueueThread->runOnQueueSync([this] () {
       terminateOnJSVMThread();
-    } else {
-      m_messageQueueThread->runOnQueueSync([this] () {
-        terminateOnJSVMThread();
-      });
-    }
-  } catch (...) {
-    Exceptions::handleUncaughtException();
+    });
   }
 }
 
@@ -392,6 +392,7 @@ void JSCExecutor::receiveMessageFromOwner(const std::string& msgString) {
 void JSCExecutor::terminateOwnedWebWorker(int workerId) {
   auto worker = m_ownedWorkers.at(workerId).getExecutor();
   std::shared_ptr<MessageQueueThread> workerMQT = worker->m_messageQueueThread;
+  worker->destroy();
   m_ownedWorkers.erase(workerId);
   workerMQT->quitSynchronous();
 }
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.h b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.h
index 336220144..a10907ccf 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.h
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/JSCExecutor.h
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ public:
   virtual void stopProfiler(const std::string &titleString, const std::string &filename) override;
   virtual void handleMemoryPressureModerate() override;
   virtual void handleMemoryPressureCritical() override;
+  virtual void destroy() override;
 
   void installNativeHook(const char *name, JSObjectCallAsFunctionCallback callback);
 
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.cpp b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.cpp
index 3e1c700b7..ace85bd92 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.cpp
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.cpp
@@ -26,8 +26,4 @@ namespace JSLogging {
 JSCNativeHook nativeHook = nullptr;
 };
 
-namespace Exceptions {
-HandleUncaughtException handleUncaughtException;
-};
-
 } }
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.h b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.h
index 5ad664dbf..608fbc1a8 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.h
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/Platform.h
@@ -46,9 +46,4 @@ namespace JSLogging {
   extern JSCNativeHook nativeHook;
 };
 
-namespace Exceptions {
-  using HandleUncaughtException = std::function<void()>;
-  extern HandleUncaughtException handleUncaughtException;
-};
-
 } }
diff --git a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/OnLoad.cpp b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/OnLoad.cpp
index fad41e7cc..d684b5823 100644
--- a/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/OnLoad.cpp
+++ b/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/OnLoad.cpp
@@ -651,6 +651,15 @@ static void create(JNIEnv* env, jobject obj, jobject executor, jobject callback,
   setCountableForJava(env, obj, std::move(bridge));
 }
 
+static void destroy(JNIEnv* env, jobject jbridge) {
+  auto bridge = extractRefPtr<CountableBridge>(env, jbridge);
+  try {
+    bridge->destroy();
+  } catch (...) {
+    translatePendingCppExceptionToJavaException();
+  }
+}
+
 static void loadApplicationScript(
     const RefPtr<CountableBridge>& bridge,
     const std::string& script,
@@ -865,9 +874,6 @@ extern "C" JNIEXPORT jint JNI_OnLoad(JavaVM* vm, void* reserved) {
         return std::unique_ptr<MessageQueueThread>(
             JMessageQueueThread::currentMessageQueueThread().release());
       };
-    Exceptions::handleUncaughtException = [] () {
-      translatePendingCppExceptionToJavaException();
-    };
     PerfLogging::installNativeHooks = addNativePerfLoggingHooks;
     JSLogging::nativeHook = nativeLoggingHook;
 
@@ -950,6 +956,7 @@ extern "C" JNIEXPORT jint JNI_OnLoad(JavaVM* vm, void* reserved) {
 
     registerNatives("com/facebook/react/bridge/ReactBridge", {
         makeNativeMethod("initialize", "(Lcom/facebook/react/bridge/JavaScriptExecutor;Lcom/facebook/react/bridge/ReactCallback;Lcom/facebook/react/bridge/queue/MessageQueueThread;)V", bridge::create),
+        makeNativeMethod("destroy", bridge::destroy),
         makeNativeMethod(
           "loadScriptFromAssets", "(Landroid/content/res/AssetManager;Ljava/lang/String;)V",
           bridge::loadScriptFromAssets),