They are made from an available and suitable plant into a shape of a bridge, but not with a specific intention of being suitable for a couple of hundred villagers only.
They might as well be suitable for a good deal more, we weren't even given any measurements, crossections etc. in the article to even begin to guess.
The mere fact that Western Society can't or hasn't done something doesn't imply that it's impossible. It's a reasonably well known fact that the indigenous people of america had almost no encounters with any sort of plague or disease like that of the black plague, measles, or smallpox, something that would seem impossible without the knowledge of the structures of their cities and their relationship with cattle.