History

Kanchanaburi Province [ The bridge over the river kwai ]  

The famous Bridge on the River Kwai is located in Kanchanaburi Province, not for from the city center. This bridge was first built as a part of the railway  between Thailand and Burma in 1942. During the World War II, the Japanese wanted to
seek to shorten the supply lines between Japan and Burma in preparation for an eventual attack on British India. The Japanese started work on a railway from Thailand to Burma through the river valley for a distance of about 400 kilometers or
249 miles. Constructions were split into many different areas and carried out simultaneously.

For the difficult work, the Japanese enforced roughly 250,000 Asian laborers and 61,000 Allied prisoners-of-war  to construct 260 kilometers of rail on the Thai side, approaching the Three Pagodas Pass on the border.