How many of our readers remember the ice break in the Merrimack River?  Not many years after the wooden bridge was built at Taylor Falls, an ice jam and high water pressed so hard against the Hudson pier that there were fears for the safety of the bridge. To avoid this danger in the future this ice break was erected in 1834.  Placed in the river on the Hudson side just north of the bridge this ice break  has protected three bridges against surging ice flows: the wooden bridge, the iron bridge, and the concrete bridge.    It was removed during the construction of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, the northern span of our current twin bridges.  Photo from the Historical Society Collection.