Chroy Changva Bridge


The Chroy Changva Bridge is a 709-meter bridge that crosses the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh, originally built in 1963, with Japanese aid. Severely damaged during the civil war, in 1972 and 1973, it remained closed until it reopened on the 26th of February 1994
About 10 km north of it there is another bridge the Prek Kdam Bridge, then the Prek Pnov Bridge and no more bridges on the Tonle Sap, a temporary bridge should open en April 2018, the construction of a concrete bridge should start just after that.

The collapse of the bridge in 1972

The bridge collapsed in 1972 by 101 Viet Cong suicide bombers. “At 12 am, suicide bombers in a car drove up the bridge and detonated the bomb causing the bridge to collapse” said a witness of the bombing. The remaining suicide bombers that didn't went with them were tracked down and captured by Khmer Republic troops the next morning and were all executed without leaving a trace.