In the Singapore River today, bumboats are used for river cruises and you’ll probably see one or two of them at a time. However, before the big Singapore River cleanup in the late 1970s the river was packed with bumboats. Back then, these small boats weren’t used as water taxis to get to the outlying islands or as cargo ships to shuttle goods between land and larger ships offshore. Through the contributions of some of his readers, Chun See of Good Morning Yesterday shares some images of the Singapore River from the 1950s and 1960s.

Check out the images in Chun See’s post here.