Death Railway Bridge

This little railway bridge is not nearly as impressive in person as the dramatic story that made it famous. The materials for the bridge were brought from Java by the Imperial Japanese Army during its 1942-43 occupation of Thailand. The first version of the bridge, completed in February 1943, was all wood. In April of the same year a second bridge of steel was constructed.

In 1945 the bridge was bombed several times Allied planes and was only rebuilt after the war - the curved portions of the bridge are original.

The bridge spans Mae Nam Khwae Yai, which is 2.5km from the centre of Kanchanaburi. The most enjoyable way to get to the bridge from town is to rent a bicycle or motorcycle. You can also catch a northbound sǎwngthǎew (10B) along Th Saengchuto.

Train enthusiasts should not miss the old locomotives used during WWII that are parked on display near the bridge. During the last week of November and first week of December there is a nightly sound-and-light show at the bridge, commemorating the Allied attack on the Death Railway in 1945. It's a big scene, with the sounds of bombers and explosions, fantastic bursts of light, and more. The town gets a lot of Thai tourists during this week, so book early if you want to witness this spectacle.

Monumental engineering projects are often the modern measure of a sophisticated and superior society. And the railway now known as the 'Death Railway' is one of the most obvious examples of this fascination with mechanised domination. The railway was built during the WWII-era Japanese occupation of Thailand (1942-43) and its strategic objective was to link 415km of rugged terrain between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) in order to secure an alternative supply route for the Japanese conquest of India. It was an ambitious goal that was accomplished with limited equipment, brutal treatment of forced labour and engineering creativity. Construction of the railway began on 16 September 1942 at existing stations at Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar, and Nong Pladuk (Ban Pong) in Thailand. Japanese engineers at the time estimated that it would take five years to link Thailand and Myanmar by rail. In actuality, the Japanese army forced the POWs to complete the 1m-gauge railway in only 16 months. Most of the work was done by hand with simple tools, building high bridges and carving cuttings into the sides of the mountains. The rails were finally joined 37km south of Three Pagodas Pass; a Japanese brothel train inaugurated the line. The bridge that spans the River Kwai near Kanchanaburi (dubbed the 'Death Railway Bridge'; see ) was in use for 20 months before the Allies bombed it in 1945. Rather than a supply line, the route had quickly become an escape for Japanese troops. After the war, the British took control of the railway on the Burmese side of the border and ripped up 4km of the tracks leading to Three Pagodas Pass for fear of the route being used by Karen separatists. On the Thai side, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) assumed control and continues to operate trains on 130km of the original path between Nong Pladuk (Ban Pong), south of Kanchanaburi, to Nam Tok. Approximately 40km of the railway is now submerged under the Khao Laem Dam while the remaining track on either side of the dam was dismantled. Hellfire Pass (or Konyu Cutting), one of the most demanding construction points, is still visible today at the Hellfire Pass Memorial.