diff --git a/tokio-trace/tokio-trace-core/src/span.rs b/tokio-trace/tokio-trace-core/src/span.rs
index 1ad66a554..7b93d8d69 100644
--- a/tokio-trace/tokio-trace-core/src/span.rs
+++ b/tokio-trace/tokio-trace-core/src/span.rs
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 /// Identifies a span within the context of a process.
 ///
-/// Span IDs are used primarily to determine of two handles refer to the same
+/// Span IDs are used primarily to determine if two handles refer to the same
 /// span, without requiring the comparison of the span's fields.
 ///
 /// They are generated by [`Subscriber`](::Subscriber)s for each span as it is
@@ -19,4 +19,9 @@ impl Span {
     pub fn from_u64(u: u64) -> Self {
         Span(u)
     }
+
+    /// Returns the span's ID as a  `u64`.
+    pub fn into_u64(&self) -> u64 {
+        self.0
+    }
 }