"The tunnel was built alongside the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s, opening as a single bore with two lanes in each direction before widening during the postwar boom. Drivers called it the Waldo Tunnel, after the Waldo Grade - itself named for William Waldo, a Gold Rush-era politician who ran for governor in 1853."
"1969 brought the rainbows, thanks to retiring Caltrans executive Alan S. Hart and spokesperson Robert Halligan, who had the arches painted on their own initiative - a rogue flourish that nearly vanished when agency leadership moved to erase them. Public pushback saved the stripes, which, the men thought, would be a nice welcome home for commuters climbing the grade at the end of their workday."
"It was in 2014, after Robin Williams died by suicide at his Tiburon home on Aug. 11, that supporters of switching the name from Waldo to Williams drew a straight line between the beloved comedian and the tunnel's rainbow motif. Williams famously wore rainbow suspenders as the alien Mork on the late '70s ABC sitcom "Mork & Mindy""
The Robin Williams Tunnel, located on U.S. 101 between San Francisco and Marin, was officially renamed on February 29, 2016, ten years ago. Originally called the Waldo Tunnel after Gold Rush-era politician William Waldo, the 1,000-foot passage was built in the 1930s alongside the Golden Gate Bridge. The tunnel's distinctive feature is its painted rainbow arches on the northbound side, added in 1969 by retiring Caltrans executive Alan S. Hart and spokesperson Robert Halligan. Following Robin Williams' death in 2014, supporters successfully advocated for renaming the tunnel after the beloved comedian, drawing a connection between his iconic rainbow suspenders worn on the sitcom "Mork & Mindy" and the tunnel's rainbow motif.
Read at SFGATE
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