the Burma Railway is a railway 415 km (280 miles) long railway stretching between Thailand and Burma.

70 years old when started (2012)

The Thai Burma Railway was built by the Empire of Japan in 1943, to support its forces in the Burma campaign of World War II. Forced labor was used in its construction. About 180,000 Asian civilian laborers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war worked on the railway. Over 90,000 civilians and 12,399 Allied POW's died as a direct result of the project.

There were estimated 13,000 workers of Australia on the Thailand to burma railroad!! But again that juat an estimation! There could have been more!

So that the Japanese could build their army up in Burma and eventually conquer Asia. The original route which the Japanese took was long and took too much time, it also opened them up to attacks from the Allied forces. The Burma railway originally was going to be built by Burma and Moulmein but they abandoned this idea when the second world war broke out, the Japanese just took over the plan.