Danube’s incredible drift ice in the 1900s – Photo Gallery

Elizabeth Bridge and the Main Parish Church of the Assumption - 1941

Danube and its drift ice has been keeping Hungarians occupied in the last days, which is no surprise considering that it’s been four years since this natural phenomenon last occurred. Despite the frostily low temperature, many people go out to the river coast to check out and photograph this amazing spectacle.

According to szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, this is exactly what happened during the cold winters of the 1900s. They collected some photos from Fortepan, home of the most special photos from the past, that depict how the sensation looked like in the previous century.

To give some heads up about the phenomenon: drift ice (debacle, break-up) signifies that a river carries ice-floats. In the case of constant low temperature, the touching ice-floats freeze together until they stop somewhere (mostly in bends, at islands, above bridges etc.). Sometimes the water floods so much that it continues flowing on top of the ice. This is when a second layer of ice is formed.

However, it is much more common that flooding water pushes the ice-floats onto each other’s back or even tumbles them, thus forming a constantly growing river bar. But let’s get back to the 1900s 🙂