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Why did workers need to build bridges and cut through mountains for the Burma Railway?

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Map showing the height of Japanese territorial expansion in 1942 during World War II, with a large hatched area covering much of East and Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, including parts of China, Korea, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and numerous Pacific islands. Japan's home islands are shaded in solid red, while the expansion area stretches from India and Burma in the west to the Aleut — Burma Railway In World War II Japanese military forces quickly took advantage of their success at Pearl Harbor to expand their holdings throughout the Pacific and westward toward India. This expansion continued relatively unchecked until mid-1942. Then, after losing the Battle of Midway, Japan was forced on the defensive.

Workers were forced to build bridges and cut through mountains to create a railway bed that was sufficiently straight and level to accommodate the narrow-gauge track.1

The construction of the Burma Railway was an exceptionally difficult engineering task because the route traversed uneven terrain, canyons, and thick, mosquito-infested jungle. To maintain the necessary alignment for the tracks, the Japanese military forced Allied prisoners of war and Asian conscripts to bridge rivers and excavate sections of mountains, often using only inadequate hand tools. These efforts were driven by the Japanese desire to complete the supply route as quickly as possible to support their forces during the Burma Campaign.1