PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Sarah Mildred Long, namesake of the bridge connecting Portsmouth to Kittery, Maine, has died at the age of 87.

Long, known to most simply as “Mildred,” died at the Sunbridge Nursing Home on Feb. 29.

The U.S. Route 1 bypass bridge was named after Long, an employee of the New Hampshire Bridge Authority for 50 years, in 1987. The authority voted unanimously to rename the bridge in honor of Long.

In a book about the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, Woodard D. Openo writes, “[Long] represents the connection of the region’s present with its past.” Portsmouth resident Joyce Miller, who knew Long for 25 years, said Long was never a person who craved the kind of attention the bridge naming earned her.

“She never bragged,” Miller said. “She was always embarrassed at the nursing home when people referred to her as the ‘lady the bridge was named after.”‘

Fellow worker and friend Carol Drew, of Kittery, Maine, said Long loved her work. “It was her life,” she said.

Former Portsmouth Mayor Eileen Foley agreed. “The bridge was kind of like her baby,” Foley said.