ON THE RIVER KWAI

Prisoners of war constructed a bridge over the Mae

Kong river at the town of Kanchanaburi. Building this was a nearly impossible feat and it’s made all the more impressive by the fact it was completed in just one year, from October 1942 to 1943. The cost was high, though, and locals believe that one soldier died for every single railway sleeper crossing the bridge. The story of the bridge was later dramatised in a 1957 film, The Bridge on the River Kwai.