The Bridge of Flowers was once a trolley bridge built in 1908 by the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway. As the nearby Iron Bridge had only a 20-ton weight limit, the five-span, 400-foot concrete arched trolley bridge, connecting the towns of Shelburne and Buckland, was constructed to help deliver heavy freight from the Shelburne Falls railyard to the mills on the 7 1/2-mile line along Route 112 North to Colrain, as well as passengers and local goods, such as milk, apples and cotton. 

Antoinette Burnham had the vision to take a community problem of a discontinued trolley bridge and turn it into a beautiful Bridge of Flowers. According to The History and Traditions of Shelburne, Massachusetts published in 1958, the trolley bridge was an "eyesore." It was too expensive to destroy, yet it was not needed as a footbridge. It could not be destroyed partly because of expense and because it carried the water main to the Buckland side of the river. The Shelburne Falls Fire District purchased the bridge for $1,250.