Why should you go there and how do you do it right?

The Bridge on the River Kwai carries the Thailand-Burma Railway, the so-called Death Railway, over the Khwae Yai River on the northern outskirts of Kanchanaburi. The line was built in 1942 and 1943 by the Japanese army using forced labor from Allied prisoners of war and Asian forced laborers. Tens of thousands of them died, and the bridge is the most visited memorial to them. The curved steel girders date back to the war; the straight central girders replaced those destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945.

The bridge is located approximately 3 km north of the war cemetery and the city center and is freely accessible at all times. Since trains still use it, pedestrians should use the small platforms at the sides when passing through. Trains 257 and 259 from Bangkok arrive at River Kwai Bridge station at the eastern end at 10:37 a.m. and 4:28 p.m., respectively, and continue across the bridge towards Nam Tok. Trains returning to Bangkok depart the station at 6:59 a.m. and 2:34 p.m.

The bridge is busiest in the late morning when tour groups arrive and quietest in the early morning. The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre and the war cemetery in the city vividly illustrate the history, and the Hellfire Pass, 80 km further north, is the ideal place to grasp the immense construction costs.