Only 135 kilometers from the capital, Kanchanburi is known today as home to national parks, waterfalls, and pristine jungles carved by sparkling rivers. Seventy-five years ago, Kanchanaburi was known for something very different. On October 17, 1943 the occupying Japanese military forces drove the final spike completing the Thai-Burma Railway, later made famous by the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï and movie of the same name, The Bridge on the River Kwai.