Features of Bridges

A network may have a number of bridges.

Generally speaking bridges cannot provide multiple paths to the same segment
This is because such an arrangement will result in data looping.
The main features of bridges are as follows.
Bridges work at the data link layer since they need to understand the MAC addresses within the frames and function in a similar manner to a switch.
Most bridges are often used to link different cable types.
Some bridges can only link segments of the same type e.g. Ethernet to Ethernet.
Fewer bridges can link network segments using different technologies.
For example linking of Ethernet and token ring.
Such bridges are known as Translation bridges or Heterogeneous bridges.