The Pai Memorial Bridge that spans the Pai River is one of the main tourist attractions in the Pai area. The bridge was originally built by the Japanese in WW II with conscripted local labor, to facilitate the movement of troops from the existing garrison in Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son and on to Burma, where the Japanese intended to fight the British. The bridge was originally built of wood logs cut from the forest and moved to the site with elephants. The Japanese burned the wooden bridge but inconvenienced villagers rebuilt it in the post-war years. In 1975 the Thai government built the current iron bridge. This was also meant as an infrastructure project benefiting the then remote province of Mae Hong Son, to keep its citizens loyal to the central Thai government.