California to Name Tunnel After Robin Williams

He used to go through 'Rainbow Tunnel' every day
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 24, 2015 2:23 AM CDT
California to Name Tunnel After Robin Williams
Robin Williams appears onstage at the 2012 Comedy Awards in New York.   (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, file)

Unless fans of failed 1853 Whig Party gubernatorial candidate William Waldo make a last stand, California will soon be getting a Robin Williams Tunnel. A bill to rename the tunnel, which connects the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County and was once part of the comedian's daily commute, sailed through the California Assembly 76-0 yesterday, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The tunnel is currently known as the Waldo Tunnel and has also been nicknamed the "Rainbow Tunnel" because of its painted archways, NBC Bay Area reports.

The bill, which started out as an online petition, will now be considered by the state Senate. The tunnel's rainbows "personify Robin in that he was so playful, fun, accessible, alive, and colorful" and are also reminiscent of the suspenders he wore in Mork and Mindy, writes petition starter Julie Wainwright, who lived near Williams in Marin County. "Robin was a one-of-a-kind type of person, and I want him to be honored in an unconventional, everlasting, and beautiful way," she writes. (Williams made sure that you won't be seeing him as a Tupac-style hologram for at least 25 years.)

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