First released in white in a few sets in 1988, the original Plarail suspension bridge is nicely detailed with a hanging lower support structure and nice suspended "ropes". The design of this bridge is based on the Great Seto Bridge which has an upper road and lower rail section, and in the Suburban Train (Blue Line) DX Railroad Set two of these bridges in white are used for a Plaroad line over a Plarail line.
In the years following it was used a few times including in yellow for Tomy Train, with the tooling changing to have more support around the connection point during this period. In the 1990s this bridge was sold in turquoise as part of D-10 Bridge for the Motor Tomica series of battery-powered cars and accessories.
The bridge was produced in a few other colors like dark and light blue for sets into the 2000s.
In 2002 the arched bridge tooling originally produced for Super Rail in the 1970s was adapted to work with Plarail and was first released in red in the Shinkansen Kodama Set in 2002.
In 2003 the bridge was produced in green for the Sound C62 Double Unit Set and Thomas and Elizabeth Railroad Crossing Station Set. The bridge appeared in several later Thomas series sets including the export Steam Along Thomas Set.
In 2004 another set based on the Great Seto Bridge but with a much larger and longer bridge was released. This bridge is four straight rails long with specialized pier pieces including extra tall ones that fit the sides of the bridge and a combination road-rail type that allow the bridge to be used with rail or Motor Tomica road, which was being commercialized as Plaroad at the time.
A version of this suspension bridge was produced in green and cream for the Thomas the Tank Engine export series, although it was not actually used in any Japanese sets except when the North American Thomas Ultimate Set was imported and sold exclusively at Toys R Us in Japan for Christmas 2006.