The bridge that connects Rockland and Westchester counties turned 50 Thursday.

Construction began on the Tappan Zee Bridge in 1952, and the structure opened for traffic in 1955. The bridge is named for an Indian tribe from the area called the Tappan, and Zee comes from the Dutch word sea. Ramesh Mehta of the Thruway Authority monitors live pictures of the bridge from his office. He believes the bridge has done extremely well considering that it was only built to last 50 years.

Nearly 150,000 commuters cross the bridge on a daily basis.