A method of creating a synthetic bridge (100) has select data (406) logically extracted from an application layer of a first network (12A) which contains one or more first data streams to be transported to a second network (12B). Select data (406) is logically extracted from an application layer of the second network (12B). Select data (406) is logically extracted from an application layer of the second network (12B) which contains one or more second data streams to be transported to the first network (12A). The two or more first and second data streams are transported over separate sets of non-network media link interfaces (130-133) that only allow for limited information encoding and inherently prevent any network protocol information from being passed with the two or more first and second data streams until after the two or more first and second data streams are in the control of the opposite network from which they were transported.