PHOTOS: St. Louisans used to walk across, party on the frozen Mississippi River

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ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Yeah, it's been pretty cold in St. Louis lately. The temperature hasn't been above the freezing point in the past 11 days and we're not expected to get back above 32-degrees until the weekend.

But at least it's not cold enough that the Mississippi River has frozen over – like it did throughout the mid-1800s.

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The Missouri History Society shared some photos with KMOX of how generations before us use to "eat, drink, gamble, and play" and walk from Missouri to Illinois across the frozen, mighty Mississippi River.

Check out more info and photos, here:

Frozen Mississippi River
Photo credit A woman, possibly Annie Kuehn, and others crossing the frozen Mississippi River during the ice gorge of 1905. Missouri Historical Society Collections.

This photo from 1905 shows hundreds of people walking beneath Eads Bridge

Frozen Mississippi river
Photo credit “Ice Bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis” from Harper’s Weekly, January 18, 1873. Missouri Historical Society Collections.

In the winter of 1854 one man reportedly first opened up a liquor store halfway across the Mississippi. Then later that night, he added a 10-pin bowling alley

Frozen Mississippi river
Photo credit “Pedestrians Crossing the River on the Ice” from the St. Louis Republic, February 12, 1902.

People began to look forward to the Mississippi River freezing over, so they could host winter carnivals with gambling, drinking and live music

Mississippi River frozen
Photo credit “The Winter Carnival at St. Louis—The Mississippi Frozen Over—from a sketch by G. B. Ellsbury” from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, January 30, 1864. Missouri Historical Society Collections.

Stories of the festivals on ice became legendary and the Missouri Historical Society says some people couldn't wait for it to freeze again

Frozen Mississippi river
Photo credit Photo of the frozen Mississippi River in 1897 featured in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 26, 1951.

On one day in 1856, an estimated 15,000 crossed the river by foot. Tents were scattered across the ice route selling cakes, coffee, oysters and whiskey. It was called "Mississippi Avenue"

St. Louis snow
Photo credit (UPI, Bill Greenblatt)

Just for fun, let's compare those historic images to what we've experienced this week

St. Louis snow
Photo credit (UPI, Bill Greenblatt)

From Sunday through Monday, some around the greater St. Louis area saw more than 10-inches of snowfall

St. Louis snow
Photo credit (UPI, Bill Greenblatt)

Monday's snow in St. Louis was just the third time in recorded history (since 1890) that there was more than 2-inches of snow and a high temperature less than 5-degrees