Typically, workers died from malnutrition, cholera, malaria, dysentery and exhaustion. The two ends of the bridge were finally joined on the 17th October 1943, some 15 to 16 months after the project began.
Kanchanaburi's greatest attractions to this day are the war cemeteries, museums and monuments connected to the bridge and those who died building it. The original bridge was destroyed by Allied bombing raids, and what stands today is a reconstruction, built following the end of WWII.