Bridge on the River Kwai

Last week, I spent a couple of days in Kanchanaburi, the city in Thailand where the Bridge on the River Kwai is located. The history of this bridge and the infamous death railway is fascinating. During the Japanese occupation of Thailand during WWII, the Japanese wanted to create a more direct route accross Thailand into Burma (now Myanmar) to transport supplies, so they forced POWs from America, Australia, NZ, England, Austria, and other countries, as well as local Thais and other Southeast Asians to construct the railway. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives through disease, accidents, torture, and sheer exhaustion--hence the name "Death Railway". The bridge was bombed by allied forces a couple of times to try and cut off the shipment of supplies accross the river, but was rebuilt. This portion of the bridge is original. Trains (and tourists) still use the railway and cross the bridge every day.