Pic: Mississippi River frozen solid, February 1905

[Are_grits_groceries]

@History_Pics: Mississippi River frozen solid, February 1905

Now that's cold!

[B Calm]

1. Stupid people walking on a frozen river?

[LuvNewcastle]

2. It was certainly frozen solid.

Look at the line of people in the background, beyond the bridge. If it could hold up all those people, the ice had to have been very thick.

[B Calm]

3. The only trouble is, there was a current under the ice. The

Wabash river freezes solid almost every winter here in Indiana, but you don't see people walking across it!

[LuvNewcastle]

4. Yeah, I wouldn't have walked on it. You know a river as big and deep as the Miss.

would have a current somewhere beneath that ice. I'm sure it would carry someone away before someone else had the chance to haul them out.

[whathehell]

8. Um, no...How do you think ice skating evolved?

[B Calm]

9. On the Mississippi River, I don't think so!

[whathehell]

19. Really?...Then tell that to 4dsc in post #7..He says he walked across it in '72/73.

[B Calm]

20. He also said it was the dumbest thing he ever did!

[whathehell]

21. That's not the point...The point is, it can be done..People have done riskier things

and been called "geniuses" and "heroes'.

[B Calm]

22. A few years ago we had two young boys playing on the ice

on the Vermilion River here in Cayuga, Indiana. The ice broke and one of the boys went in. The current was strong and the boy wasn't discovered for weeks. As an avid ice fisherman, I'm smart enough to know to stay off river ice!

[snooper2]

17. Technically the lady in the foreground is standing, "Hey Honey, walk out there just a little bit"

Okay,

I know I know it's cold, just hold it...let me get setup...


Hold it, hold it, okay, "Snap" Got the shot thanks!

[dipsydoodle]

5. Long ago there were frost fairs on the River Thames on the occasions it froze.

River Thames frost fairs were held on the tideway of the River Thames at London between the 15th century and early 19th century, during the period known as the Little Ice Age, when the river froze over. During that time the British winter was more severe than now, and the river was wider and slower.

During the Great Frost of 1683–84, the worst frost recorded in England,[1][2][3] the Thames was completely frozen for two months, with the ice reaching a thickness of 11 inches (28 cm) in London. Solid ice was reported extending for miles off the coasts of the southern North Sea (England, France and the Low Countries), causing severe problems for shipping and preventing the use of many harbours.[4] Near Manchester, the ground was frozen to 27 inches; in Somerset, to more than four feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames_frost_fairs

[TexasProgresive]

6. That must've been the year my Great great aunt saw ice blocks

a yard square floating in the river at New Orleans. She told me this when I was a child-I had a hard time believing it. We did have a snow in N.O. '57 to '60 but is really wasn't that cold. Tante Marie would been 26 or so in 1905.

[4dsc]

7. Winter of 72/73 I walked across the Mississippi

in dubuque. Probably the dumbest thing I ever did but that was also the coldest winter I have ever experienced. I think we went 20 straight days where the temps did not get above zero. I don't know how I'd react if we got those temp again.

[rurallib]

10. refridgeration in those days meant sawing huge blocks of ice

out of the river, putting it on sleds and have the horses pull it to the ice house.
The ice house was a wooden structure with walls extremely thick. The ice was stored until summer under layers of blankets and sawdust.
Most every city was near river and that is the crude way refrigeration started.

Who can forget the massive floods along especially the Mississippi when the ice would jam under the bridges and create huge temporary dams. Ah the good old days.

I was never gutsy enough to try to walk across the frozen river, but I watch as many others did. Now the rivers seldom freeze over and when they do the ice is nowhere thick enough to stand on.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. Where was this picture taken?

Minneapolis-St. Paul?

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. St.Louis

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2013/01/frozen_mississippi_river_historic_cold.php

[rgbecker]

13. That's the Eads Bridge in St. Louis.

Looking southeast from the Missouri Side towards Illinois.

I grew up in St. Louis and saw lots of ice in the river but never enough to walk across on. The ice will often, even now, close the river to barge traffic for months in the winter.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. I had no idea that the Mississippi River at St. Louis

could have so much ice

[justhanginon]

16. I was born in '36 and I can remember

my dad talking about walking across the river to Mosenthien (not sure about the spelling) island in St. Louis. I can also remember him skating on our rural road for several miles after one storm. Evidently he enjoyed winter much more than I do.

[Historic NY]

15. I got pictures of cars driving across the Hudson River...

its used to freeze over and the cutters couldn't keep it open. My father used to drive across it when the ferry's were frozen in.