Google Doodle honours the Hartland Covered Bridge

World's longest covered bridge opened on July 4, 1901

The Hartland Covered Bridge's 111th anniversary is being marked by Google today on its daily doodle. (Google)

Google.ca is marking the 111th anniversary of the Hartland Bridge by featuring the historic covered bridge as its Google Doodle today.

The world’s longest covered bridge opened on July 4, 1901 and stretches across the St. John River in the western New Brunswick town.

The Hartland Bridge, pictured in here in 1986, is the longest-covered bridge in the world.

That anniversary is being celebrated by the world's most famous search engine. Each day, Google unveils a new doodle marking an important event on that day in history.

Hartland Mayor Craig Melanson said he wasn't given any advance warning of the drawing would appear for Canadians using the Google search engine.

But the Hartland mayor said he got a call from his daughter Wednesday morning telling him he was the "mayor of Google."

He calls it a "million-dollar advertisement" for the town and the province.

"We certainly have hundreds upon hundreds of busloads of tourists that come every year, not to mention all of the individuals who come in their vehicles. But I think that for the province in particular it does a lot. People want to see or do things while they're on vacation and this bridge does that. It gives them something to come to," said Melanson.

The Hartland Covered Bridge spanning the St. John River.

There have been more than 1,000 doodles on Google's homepage since 1998, ranging from a Starry Night-style version of the logo to commemorate Vincent Van Gogh's 152nd birthday on March 29, 2005 to mini, playable version of Pac-Man that commemorated the game's 30th anniversary on May 22, 2010.

Aaron Brindle, a communications officer at Google Canada, said the company has been interested in featuring the bridge's anniversary for a while.

"They've built this wonderful bridge and Canadians should be really proud of the fact that it's the longest covered bridge in the world," Brindle said.

"But really our goal is just to kind of surprise our users and to add a touch of whimsy to the homepage."

And Brindle said, as far as he knows, this is New Brunswick's first feature doodle.

The Hartland Covered Bridge is not the only famous span to be honoured by Google recently. San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was the daily doodle on May 27.

The Hartland Covered Bridge has become an iconic image in New Brunswick. It was declared a National Historic Site in 1980 and a Provincial Historic Site in 1999.

The bridge was constructed in 1901 by a private company because the provincial government wouldn't build one. The provincial government eventually purchased the bridge in 1906.

Two bridge spans collapsed due to ice in 1920 and when the bridge re-opened in 1922 it was covered.

He says it’s the kind of advertisement that money can’t buy. Google spokesman Aaron Brindle says the company likes to surprise its users and add a bit of whimsy to the page.

The bridge built privately after a group of citizens, faced by government inaction, came together to form the Hartland Bridge Company, and for its first years of operation it was funded by tolls: three cents for pedestrians and six for a horse and wagon.

The government of New Brunswick took over the structure in 1906 and has operated it since.

The bridge was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980.

According to Canada’s Historic Places, the bridge’s unique design and physical fabric give the site its heritage value:

Covered bridges date from the first decade of the 19th century when North American buildings began using wooden trusses for long spans and covered them to prevent the truss joins from rotting. After 1840 the Howe truss, which introduced iron tension rods into the truss work, was widely adopted and New Brunswick erected numerous bridges using this technique, among them this one, built in 1921 with a walkway added in 1943.

Google creates dozens of doodles throughout the year to mark notable occasions, many of which roll out on a country-by-country basis. South of the border on Wednesday, for example, Google’s U.S. site got a doodle for the fourth of July.

A few days earlier, the search giant celebrated Canada Day.