Jakarta has a bridge named after goats.
It's called Jembatan Kambing, and you'll find it in Pekojan, part of the wider Kota Tua area. Local history explains the unusual name: goats were brought across Kali Angke on their way to a slaughterhouse. Even the nearby Jalan Pejagalan carries a reminder of that trade.
Many visitors begin exploring Old Jakarta at Fatahillah Square, with its museums and impressive colonial buildings. They are worth seeing. But Pekojan tells a different part of the city's history. Here, an old street name or the way a building is arranged can reveal more about its former residents than an elaborate façade.
Some of those details are surprisingly easy to overlook.
Jembatan Kambing: The bridge and the trade behind its name
There is little about an ordinary crossing to suggest an old livestock trade. A report on a 2024 heritage walk described motorcycles using Jembatan Kambing. The traffic had changed, but the name remained.
Look at how the streets meet the waterway. Moving animals to the slaughterhouse was once part of the neighborhood's working life. The crossing had a practical purpose long before anyone became interested in its history.
It would be easy to imagine goats crossing the very structure standing here today. But there is no reason to assume the bridge has remained unchanged. The name tells us about an earlier activity, not necessarily the age of the present structure.
That is something worth remembering throughout Kota Tua. Buildings are rebuilt, waterways are altered, and streets acquire new purposes. Sometimes a name survives longer than the thing it describes.
Elsewhere in Pekojan, the opposite has happened. The street remains, but its old name has gone.
Pekojan's history goes beyond its Arab-quarter identity
Pekojan is often called Jakarta's historic Arab quarter. That identity has deep roots, particularly through its connections with people who came from Hadramaut, in present-day Yemen.
But the name Pekojan has an earlier association with the Khoja, Muslim communities of Indian origin who lived in the area before Arab settlement became especially prominent.
One of the streets was once called Gang Koja. Today, it is Jalan Pengukiran II.
There is nothing on a modern map that necessarily tells you about those earlier residents. Without knowing the former name, you could walk along the street and never think to ask who lived here before.
Pekojan's history is closely tied to movement across the Indian Ocean. Merchants and migrants came with different languages, customs, religious traditions, and trading connections. Some settled, established businesses, and built places of worship.
Not all settlement was voluntary in the way we might imagine today. Under Dutch colonial rule, restrictions on residence and movement influenced where particular communities could live and travel.
The neighborhood changed over generations, and its identity changed with it.
Calling Pekojan an Arab quarter is not necessarily wrong. It simply leaves out an earlier chapter, one that still matters when trying to understand the people who shaped this part of Jakarta.
A short distance away, Langgar Tinggi offers another interesting connection between the neighborhood's religious and commercial life.
Langgar Tinggi: Why is the prayer room upstairs?
Langgar Tinggi stands beside Kali Angke, not far from Goat Bridge. Its name tells you something about the building: langgar refers to a small Muslim place of prayer, while tinggi means high.
The prayer room is on the upper floor.
Downstairs, the building has served other purposes. Researchers documented families living and conducting business there in the 1980s. During a reported visit in 2024, part of the ground floor was being used to sell perfume.
It is an arrangement that makes sense when you consider Pekojan's past.
The river connected trading activity, and merchants needed places to stay, work, and pray. These needs did not always require separate buildings. At Langgar Tinggi, they could be accommodated under the same roof.
The building's layout tells us quite a lot before we even consider when it was constructed.
In fact, historians have noted inconsistencies in dates associated with Langgar Tinggi. Its two-storey arrangement and relationship to the water are more reliable starting points than confidently repeating a disputed construction year.
Of course, the building's uses have changed over time. It also remains a place of worship, and visitors should not assume that the prayer area is open for sightseeing.
Even from the street, there is enough to appreciate about how it was designed and why its location mattered.
Masjid Jami Al-Anshor: The mosque behind the houses
Another place worth understanding is Masjid Jami Al-Anshor, along Jalan Pengukiran II.
Local historical accounts trace its origins to Indian Muslim settlers in 1648. Yet the mosque is surprisingly easy to miss. Surrounding houses partly conceal it from the main street, and there is no grand square announcing its presence.
Al-Anshor was among the places visited during a Ramadan heritage walk organized by Kota Tua's area-management unit in March 2024. I was one of the guides introducing participants to Pekojan's historic mosques.
Here, I explained the connections with Muslim traders from India and Arabia, along with local accounts describing the area as marshy and wooded before the surrounding neighborhood developed.
It is difficult to imagine that earlier setting when looking at the closely built houses around the mosque today.
Over time, a place associated with traders and settlers stopping to pray became part of an established residential neighborhood. The mosque remained important even as the streets and buildings around it changed.
The mosque itself has also been altered.
Reporting from the 2024 heritage walk described teak elements at its entrance and pulpit, while noting that earlier wooden support columns had been replaced with marble.
That is an important detail when considering the age of a historic building. A mosque may have origins going back centuries, but that does not mean every visible part dates from its founding.
Al-Anshor remains an active place of worship. Its surroundings are also people's homes, so understanding the mosque's significance should go hand in hand with respecting residents and worshippers.
A visit does not need to include entering the building. Sometimes knowing what stands behind those houses, and why it is there, is meaningful enough.
A different way to experience Jakarta's Old Town
Pekojan is especially interesting if you want to understand the lives of people beyond the merchants and colonial officials whose buildings dominate the usual Kota Tua sightseeing routes.
The bridge and Langgar Tinggi make an interesting pairing. One recalls the movement of livestock through a working neighborhood; the other shows how trade and worship shared space. The former Gang Koja points toward an earlier community whose name is no longer displayed on the street. Al-Anshor connects that history with a religious place still serving its neighborhood.
You don't need to rush through all of them.
Give yourself time to look at the buildings, follow the relationship between streets and waterways, and consider how much the neighborhood has changed. Be respectful of homes and prayer spaces, and check visiting arrangements locally rather than expecting every historic building to be accessible.
Fatahillah Square offers an excellent introduction to old Batavia. Pekojan adds another perspective, one shaped by the practical needs and everyday lives of the people who settled here.
And if you leave remembering only a bridge named after goats, that is a good beginning. An ordinary name can lead to a history you might otherwise never have discovered.