Bet­ter known to many as “the bridge over the Riv­er Kwai,” the Kan­chanaburi bridge is part of the Thai-Bur­­ma Rail­way that nev­er came to be. Dur­ing WWII, Japan­ese forces were intent on build­ing a rail­way link between Thai­land and Bur­ma and used Allied pris­on­ers of war (most­ly British, Dutch, and Aus­tralian cit­i­zens) for forced labor. Over 12,000 Allied pris­on­ers end­ed up dying dur­ing the one year the bridge was under con­struc­tion – and recon­struc­tion, as the bridge was bombed and dam­aged more than once – lead­ing to it being known as the “Death Rail­way.”

While the Kan­chanaburi bridge remained closed for years after the war end­ed, it is now again in oper­a­tion and can be crossed by board­ing a slow local train. About 130 kilo­me­ters of the orig­i­nal 415-kilo­­me­ter rail­way route are in use today, a grave his­tor­i­cal reminder of the hor­rif­ic events that took place here.