NATCHEZ — People want to experience history, and where better to ogle at the widening expanse of the mighty Mississippi than high and dry on the Natchez bluff?

Cars lined Broadway Saturday carrying loads of families, couples and curious spectators who wanted a glimpse of treetops and building poking up from an ever-widening Mississippi River.

Wayne Erickson of Jena, La., gazed at Vidalia from the bluff with a pair of binoculars.

“We saw the river on the news,” Erickson said. “We wanted to take a look, so I thought we’d drive over.”

Erickson said the last time he saw such a flood was in 1973, but the comparison paled to the sight before him Saturday.

“I’m concerned about the people over there,” Erickson said. “You can’t do much about mama nature. You can build levees, but if she has a mind to, she will go right over them.”

U.S. Corps of Engineers officials have said the mainline levee protecting Vidalia from the river’s waters is high enough and strong enough to withstand the predicted 63.5-foot crest on May 21.

Carolyn Rogers and her husband Harold Evans of Natchez clutched the fence at the bluff as they stared across the river.

“We had to get out and take a look,” Rogers said. “We also rode over to Vidalia to look at the water there. I feel sorry for those people. I hope the water doesn’t go over the levee.”

Rogers said she invited her Louisiana friends to stay at her house, or at least leave their important documents there, just in case.

“I’ve seen the river get high, but never like this,” Rogers said. “I hope it doesn’t go much higher, and I hope no one gets stranded. Possessions can be replaced, lives cannot.”

Texie Wallace, a 48-year resident of the Morgantown community, brought a whole group of folks to the bluff. She said 1973 was the last time she saw the river level so high.

“But that was nothing compared to this,” Wallace said. “I am stressed for other people.”

Karen Boyd rode her motorcycle from Spokane, Wash., to spend a few weeks with Wallace.

“This is history in the making,” Boyd said.

Wallace said they wanted to visit the bluff out of sheer curiosity.

“Otherwise, we’d be on the back porch right now making ice cream,” Wallace said. “But instead, we thought we’d take a little part in history.