More Old Finds in Jakarta: Indonesia

By Barrie | December 20th, 2006 | No Comments

Recently I have putting up stories about construction work being undertaken in Jakarta’s Old Town and the artifacts and historical items they have uncovered.

In another JP article, it seems they have established to a certain degree that the railway tracks uncovered were from the 19th Century.

Kota artifact part of old railway structure: Expert

An underground structure found by workers while digging a pedestrian tunnel in Jakarta’s Old Town district might have been part of the foundation for an old railway structure from the 19th century, a recent analysis reveals.

“We have compared old maps of the area and found that in the 1800s, there were three railway tracks intersecting at that point (where the structure was found),” tunnel project structural expert Josia Irwan Rastandi said.

The old map reveals that after the southern city fortress wall was demolished, the Dutch built two railway tracks running east to west and a tram track running north to south.

Around a month ago, workers digging to make way for a western entrance of the pedestrian tunnel in front of the Bank Mandiri Museum in West Jakarta found an old tram track, timber poles, terra cotta pipes, as well as brick and stone walls.

They also found separately several coins dating back to the 19th century and clay pottery.

The tram track has been confirmed as an old transportation artery running from Kota in West Jakarta to Jatinegara in East Jakarta. After the construction of the then-Benedenstad station (now Kota station), which opened in 1929, the east-west railway tracks were closed as trains were rerouted along tracks running north to south.

The tram line, however, still served as the backbone of the city’s public transportation until it was buried in the 1960s along with the rising popularity of automobiles.

Josia explained that the soil structure in the area was unstable and therefore the meeting point of the railway tracks had to be supported with a rigid foundation.

“We are 90 percent positive that the recently found structure is part of that foundation,” he added.

A different map dating back from the 17th century shows that the area of the crossing was previously a canal that was later on buried to make way for the extension of Batavia.

Josia added that the stone wall spanned 8.5 meters along the north-south axis and was built five meter under the street level to support the point where the railway lines crossed.

The stone wall was composed of large stone blocks measuring 43×43x128 centimeters connected by metal joints.

“Such a structure is meant to support heavy and dynamic loads. It could not possibly be built only to support the old city wall,” Josia added.

Previously, heritage activists had assumed that the underground structure was part of Batavia’s city fortress.

Source: Jakarta Post