 The bridge was built about 1896-7 by the Boston and Maine Railroad, replacing a standard trestle bridge built in 1892 by the Franklin and Tilton Railroad.The bridge acquired its name for the large amount of sulfite carried by the rail line to paper mills in Franklin.The mills, which were the principal users of the line, closed in the 1920s, and another covered bridge on the line, crossing the Merrimack River, was washed away by flooding in 1936.