> There is simply so much water in the basin that it disturbs the idea of putting bridges or anything over the river.

Not to mention that, IIRC, the seasonal flooding is just insane, flooding an area the size of Germany or something like that. And the width of the river doesn't help, as it averages several kilometres wide even during the dry season, and several dozen kilometres during the wet season.
It's a monster, and now I wanna see some documentaries about it again :).