The Peusangan River (Dutch Peusangan-rivier) was the river of Atjeh’s North Coast hinterland whose bridge at Teupen Blang Manè — built in 1906 on Governor Van Daalen’s initiative by the engineer troops at no cost to the road fund — formed the chief work of art of the Gajo road, whose lower course was diked under Governor Swart to drain great surfaces for rice planting, and within whose basin the government surveyed for petroleum.
The bridge of Teupen Blang Manè
Under Van Daalen’s traffic policy, beside a number of screw-pile bridges over smaller rivers and creeks, there arose “under extremely difficult circumstances” an iron work of art as the bridge over the Peusangan river at Teupen Blang Manè, reproduced in a photograph in Langhout’s book with the caption: “Ijzeren brug bij Teupen Blang Mané, in den Gajoweg, gebouwd op initiatie van Gouverneur Van Daalen, door de Genietroepen zonder kosten van het wegenfonds (1906)” (“Iron bridge near Teupen Blang Manè, on the Gajo road, built on the initiative of Governor Van Daalen, by the engineer troops at no cost to the road fund, 1906”).
Diking and surveys
Under Governor Swart the completion of diverse waterworks in Groot-Atjeh and in the Dependencies brought new tracts under irrigation; named in particular are the diking of the lower courses of the Peusangan and Djambo Ajé rivers — begun and completed under him — whereby important surfaces of grounds suitable for rice cultivation could be drained. Government surveys of a mining character took place in several parts of the province, among them in the department North Coast for the presence of petroleum in Peusangan, but without issuing in exploitation by the Government.
See Also
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 89, 106–107, 109, illustration caption p. 88.