Kanchanaburi (135 kilometers west of Bangkok) is home of the famous "Bridge over the River Kwai," immortalized by the Pierre Boulle novel, which coined the name, and the academy-award-winning David Lean movie with David Niven, which also used the same name. The original bridge was brought to Thailand from Java by the Japanese during World War II, and reassembled by prisoners of war and forced laborers, only to be destroyed by allied bombs in 1945. The present bridge was built after the war on arched supports left standing after the 1945 bombing.