There is a village named Gok Hteik Naung Cho Township in Northern Shan State. “Ngok” means going under, and it derives from the fact that the rivers and streams go underground and disappear near this village. In course of time “Ngok” corrupted to “Gok” corrupted to subterranean river called Nam Pasei which emerges above ground at another site.

Gok Hteik is famous not only because of the sub-terrene river but also because of the World’s second highest viaduct named the “Gok Hteik Viaduct”. In constructing the railway between Mandalay and Lashio, the Gok Hteik Viaduct was built in 1903. It is located at the railway mile stone 463/09, a distance of 7 miles past Naung Cho station on the Mandalay-Lashio rail line.

Unlike other bridges which cross streams and rivers, the Gok Hteik Bridge crosses two great ravines over 300 feet in depth.Thick jungles had to be cleared and many difficulties had to be faced, as the ravines were also very steep. But it took a mere 9 months to complete the massive construction. Altogether 4311 tons of iron and steel and one and a half million iron wedges were used. Then 120 feet iron frames, seven 60 feet iron frames, sixteen 40 feet iron frames and sixteen steel posts from the main structure. The Bridge is 2,260 feet long and the height from the lowest ground level to the rail line is 1,100 feet.

It is learnt that the underground stream flows under post no. 12. The height from the stream to the top of the Bridge is 860 feet.The Gok Hteik Bridge not only provided an important link in transport and communication between Mandalay and the Northern Shan State, but was also a major transport line for the Namtu Silver Mines.

When the second World war was over, the department of Myanmar Railways repaired and renovated the Bridge. The repair and renovation work began in 1948 and was completed in 1950. In August of 1950 the Bridge was back in operation.

The Gok Hteik Viaduct, crossing deep ravines with sub-trainman streams and rivers flowing right under its foundation, is indeed a marvelous engineering feat. Our MRTV-3 crew, with many difficulties, visited the Got Hteik Viaduct for a documentary shooting. We closely shot the viaduct but we were not satisfied with that, so we took time to wait for a train crossing over the bridge. We were lucky. Two trains, one up and another down, crossed over the bridge in a separate time. It was a very rare chance for us. We could take a documentary shooting and now we have presented the shooting of that viaduct to our viewers. We cannot exchange our pleasure and success with anything.