This study focuses on the stretching and breakup of a liquid bridge between two parallel plates, one of which is fixed and other movable. The shape evolution of the liquid bridge and its pinch-off are captured using a high-speed video system. At high enough plate accelerations the evolution of the midpoint diameter of the bridge is universal; it depends neither on the acceleration nor on the liquid viscosity. Moreover, at high acceleration rates the breakup time does not depend on the acceleration, but is determined solely by the liquid viscosity. A semi-empirical model is proposed which predicts the instant of the liquid bridge pinch-off. The model agrees well with the experimental data. Two major sets of experiments are performed: for an axisymmetric circular liquid bridge and for a "flat" liquid bridge, which models a stretching of a free liquid sheet. It is shown that the value of the breakup time reaches an almost constant value at high stretching rates for both geometries. Moreover, the model for the breakup time, developed for the circular liquid bridge predicts surprisingly well the results for the flat liquid bridge.