Like the structure it identifies, the name of the longest covered bridge in the nation is lengthy: Smolen-Gulf Bridge, Ashtabula County Highway 25.

The new covered bridge, No. 17 for Ashtabula County, was dedicated and named Tuesday afternoon during a ceremony blessed with perfect weather and a large crowd, about 1,500 according to Betty Morrison, executive director of the Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival Committee, a co-sponsor of the dedication.

“This is a great day for Ashtabula County,” Morrison told the crowd, which gathered at the southeast end of the bridge in Plymouth Township. “This bridge is for you; it belongs to you, and we want you to enjoy it.”

Enjoy it they did. After 40 minutes of speeches and the official naming, a cross-cut saw was turned over to three pairs of local officials who took turns taking a chunk off a log; the bridge was opened to pedestrians, who walked the 613 feet to the Ashtabula Township side on the bridge deck and pedestrian walkways.

“I think it’s great,” said Mike Wood, whose son, Noah Richard Wood, was probably the youngest person to attend the opening: 6 days old. Noah, his mother Amy and father attended the event after reading about it in the newspaper that morning, although Mike has watched the bridge take shape as he travels Route 11 to work every day.

The bridge took two years to build, although it was first conceived back in 1995, when John Smolen was Ashtabula County engineer. Smolen, whom Betty Morrison calls “Mr. Covered Bridge,” envisioned straightening the approach to the dangerous gulf on State Road and building a covered bridge across the resulting 600-foot-long gap.

“John always had a dedication to preservation of covered bridges,” said Tim Martin, Ashtabula County engineer. “He had the foresight of understanding what bridges mean to the future of the county.”

Morrison said she felt from the beginning that Smolen’s name should be connected to the bridge, which replaced a steel span built in 1948. That span replaced a covered bridge that stood in the gulf for more than eight decades, and the new bridge’s name reflects both that history and Smolen’s work as the designer and structural engineer of the new span.

“This is a great honor to me,” Smolen said after the banner was unfurled to reveal the bridge’s name. “I couldn’t ask for a better honor in my career.”

“So many people have come up to me and said how pleased they are with the name,” Morrison said after the ceremony.

Smolen was among one of the first to ride across the bridge in the procession, which included several antique and classic cars, the Lakeside High Marching Band, the Covered Bridge Festival Committee’s miniature bridge and a team of draft horses and wagon owned and driven by Dick Stasiak and his grandson Sam Rettinger. The horses left a souvenir on the new deck: Morrison described it as “fertilizer to make the bridge grow longer.”

At 613 feet, the new bridge is the longest in the United States but falls way short of the 1,282-foot structure in Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada.

The new bridge cost $8 million, $5 million of which came from federal funds. Martin recognized Rep. Steven LaTourette’s role in helping the county secure federal money for the project. LaTourette was scheduled to attend the ceremony but was called away on a family emergency during his morning visit to the county.

Sen. George Voinovich did attend and praised Ashtabula County as the “comeback county, bridge county and Ohio’s Napa Valley.”

“This is for the future of this county and for the state,” Voinovich said.