 While the bridge in the story was constructed by prisoners in two  months, the actual one built in Ceylon by a British company for the  filming (425 feet long and 50 feet above the water) took eight  months, with the use of 500 workers and 35 elephants. It was  demolished in a matter of seconds, and the total cost was 85,000  pounds (equivalent to about 1.2 million pounds in 2002).