The Bridge Over River Kwai - This is the title of a novel by Pierre Boulle published in 1952. The novel was made into film by David Lean in 1957 as 'Bridge on the River Kwai'. Either 'Bridge over River Kwai' or 'Bridge on the River Kwai', this phrase had lingered in my mind for a while though I had never witnessed it until my first visit to Kanchanaburi in Thailand.

The bridge became a top tourist attraction after the movie was released. It invites huge crowd of day trippers from Bangkok to visit Kanchanaburi, the third third largest province in Thailand despite they have to travel over 130 km. If you have watched the movie 'Bridge on the River Kwai', the shooting was made in Sri Lanka and the bridge was a wooden bridge. The infamous bridge over the River Kwai was made of black steel from Java. Originally, it crossed over Mae Khlong river at Tha Makham  or Makham Pier, approximately 5 km from Kanchanaburi downtown. Mae Khlong river was renamed to Kwai Yai River in 1960 ('Kwai' means River in Thai, 'Yai' means Big).

The Bridge over River Kwai Yai was planned by Japanese during WWII as part of their railway link from Bangkok to Rangoon (now known as Yangoon) in order to occupy Burma (Myanmar) and India. The story started with a wooden bridge built across River Kwai (or known as Mae Khlong river at that time). Completed in Feb 1943, it served to transport material required for the Death Railway link and food to prisoner camps. Since the wooden bridge was perceived not strong enough for its future load, a steel bridge was constructed adjacent to it and completed in April 1943. These bridges were built by Japanese, leveraging the blood and sweat of several thousand prisoners of war and recruited Asians laborers.

Both bridges were used for two years, until they were destroyed by Allied aerial bombing during WWII. Three out of eleven span of the steel bridge was destroyed by 1945. After Japanese surrendered, Thai government repaired the damaged span of the steel bridge into a square span instead of its original shape of semi-circle and the steel bridge is still in use today.


Personally, the image of the Bridge over River Kwai is schmaltzy partly owing to the history of how the bridge was built. The sky was bright when I was there but my heart was gloomy holding the thought that several thousand people suffered and died as a result of it.

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