The California Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a bill to rename the Waldo Tunnel after late comedian Robin Williams. 
 
 The Waldo Tunnel is a tunnel on U.S. 101 between the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito in Marin County. William Waldo was a California politician who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1853. The tunnel’s archways are painted in rainbow colors, which is why people sometimes call it the "rainbow tunnel." 
 
 Williams was a long time resident of Marin. The idea to rename the tunnel started with an online petition that received more than 60,000 signatures. 
 
 Julie Wainwright, who started the petition, explained the reason behind it through a brief message on Change.org: "To remember and honor the very important citizen and world renowned entertainer, Robin Williams, for the joy he brought to the world and to bring awareness to the silent illness that eventually took his life." 
 
 Waldo Tunnel 
 
 Photo credit: Change.org 
 
 The tunnel is reportedly featured in the Clint Eastwood film “Dirty Harry,” the Humphrey Bogart film “Dark Passage” and also plays a part in Williams’ 1999 film “Bicentennial Man.” 
 
 Williams died at his Tiburon home last August at age 63, His death shocked family, friends and fans across the Bay Area and the world, drawing an outpouring of grief and tributes. 
 
 Riya Bhattacharjee contributed to this report. ||||| Robin Williams 
 
 The California Assembly unanimously voted Thursday to name the tunnel that connects the Golden Gate Bridge to greater Marin County after the late comedian Robin Williams. 
 
 Following a 76-0 vote, the Assembly sent the bill by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, to the Senate for consideration. 
 
 Levine introduced the legislation after a Change.org petition garnered thousands of signatures in support of the name change. Today, the petition has 61,500 signatures. 
 
 The tunnel has never had an official name. It is known locally as the “Waldo Tunnel” because it travels the Waldo Grade, which is named after William Waldo, a Whig Party candidate who ran for governor in 1853. The tunnel is also sometimes called the “Rainbow Tunnel” due to its colorful motif. 
 
 Williams was raised in Marin and lived most of his life there, frequently passing through the tunnel on his way to comedy clubs in San Francisco. 
 
 “He knew how to make us laugh and that made people feel like they knew him,” Levine said last month. “He had a career that transcended the Bay Area and this tunnel was part of his daily commute.” 
 
 The 63-year-old actor committed suicide at his home on the Tiburon peninsula on August 11, 2014.
– 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.)