Bridges are networking devices that operate at the Data Link Layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model. Their primary function is to connect two or more network segments within the same local area network (LAN), allowing them to communicate as a single network.

Routers are networking devices that operate at the Network Layer (Layer 3) of the OSI model. Their primary function is to connect two or more different networks (which can be LANs or Wide Area Networks – WANs), and to route data packets between them.