The Chroy Changvar Bridge connects Phnom Penh to the Chroy Changvar peninsula across the Tonle Sap River. A Japanese construction company was commissioned to build this bridge using the national budget and the bridge was put into use in 1967. The bridge was called Sangkum Reastr Niyum Bridge.

During the civil war in Cambodia, the bridge was blown up twice, in 1972 and 1973, which made the land previously connected by the bridge wholly disconnected. Even after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime, the new government did not repair the damage immediately. It wasn’t until the 1990s that bridges were repaired under Japanese aid and reinstated for the second time in 1994. The bridge was then renamed the “Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Bridge”.

In 2015, a parallel bridge, the “Cambodian-Chinese Friendship Bridge” or “Chroy Chang Va Bridge II”, was built using a loan from the Chinese government. The second bridge was to facilitate heavy traffic between Phnom Penh and National Road 6. In 2016, the Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Bridge closed again for three years too allow for repair by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.