This is the Hien Luong bridge that separated North and South Vietnam in the DMZ over the Ben Hai river. According to our guide, the Communist half of the bridge was painted red, and the Southern half yellow. Sometimes people who wanted to escape south would run across this bridge, often to a hail of bullets from North Vietnamese soldiers who saw them as traitors. But if you reached the yellow side, they would stop shooting.  


Jackie and I found this story so moving we decided to do a re-enactment.