Web app and TCP

Fishing for design suggestions...

I have a web application that, given a certain type of request, needs to forward a message to a TCP server application. Then of course, it needs the TCP response, then send that back to the client browser.

The TCP server belongs to someone else, and is expecting one long lasting connection. I thought I could just create a socket in my app over and over when needed, but it looks like I need to connect once, then use that TCP connection for every client request.

I really have no idea how to do this, short of creating another app whose sole purpose is to connect once to the server and accept multiple connections from the web app.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated,
Mike