  It has been known for some time that the Milky Way is a barred disk galaxy.
More recently several studies inferred from starcount observations that the
Galaxy must contain a separate, new, flat long bar component, twisted relative
to the barred bulge. Here we use a simulation with a boxy bulge and bar to
suggest that these observations can be reproduced with a single structure. In
this simulation a stellar bar evolved from the disk, and the boxy bulge
originated from it through secular evolution and the buckling instability. We
calculate starcount distributions for this model at different longitudes and
latitudes, in a similar way as observers have done for resolved starcounts.
Good agreement between the simulation and the observations can be achieved for
a suitable snapshot, even though the simulation has a single boxy bulge and
bar} structure. In this model, part of the long bar signature is due to a
volume effect in the starcounts, and another part is due to chosing a snapshot
in which the planar part of the boxy bulge and bar has developed leading ends
through interaction with the adjacent spiral arm heads. We also provide
predictions from this model for the line-of-sight velocity distributions at the
longitudes with the long bar signature, for comparison with upcoming surveys.
