Crossing Local Rivers, Forging National Spaces: Building Bridges in Palembang in the Mid-Twentieth Century

South Sumatra’s capital, Palembang, is a “city of many rivers” and has long maintained a river-oriented transportation system. With road transportation’s increased importance for exploiting natural resources, however, hundreds of bridges have been constructed since the Dutch colonial period. This paper examines how the construction of bridges, and the new transportation system brought out by it, affected urban lives and social networks in Palembang, with a focus on the huge river called the Musi River, which, often regarded as unbridgeable, horizontally across the city and has kept the southern part (Ulu) isolated from the political and economic center in northern part (Ilir) since precolonial period. There has been strong aspiration to link these two parts by road since early 1950s, and in 1965 The Ampera Bridge was built. The construction apparently initiated the development of new ground transportation networks, and Ulu’s rapid urbanization and integration. However, these features of regional development actually were prerequisites for “national” development. The city was restructured by the national urban development project, which often neglected certain ethnic or social groups. The local or regional aspiration for development was supported only when it fitted with national envision. By analyzing the discussions and discourses regarding the Ampera project since early 1950s, and its impact after the construction, this paper explores how a site of transport (or transportation network) can provide “progress” and unification, while at the same time creating spaces for alienation. Together with it, this paper also aims to reexamine the interplay between the national and the local in regional development in an urban setting.