Jessica Wang, left, and Michael Teylan, both of Los Angeles, take at photo at Seattle’s famous gum wall at Pike Place Market, Monday, November 9, 2015.
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The famed “gum wall” in Seattle, where tourists and residents have stuck used chewing gum for the past 20 years, has been cleaned by city authorities.
On Tuesday, powerful steam cleaners were melting it all off.
It now boasts an estimated 1 million pieces in a kaleidoscope of colours, a few stretched and pinched into messages, hearts and other designs.
By Crawford’s rough calculation, there is about 1000kg of gum on the walls.
A few might not call a hodgepodge grouping of dried chewing gum “art”, but they probably haven’t seen Seattle’s so-called “Gum Wall” – an attraction that’s been compared to other weird landmarks like Ireland’s Blarney Stone.
“It’s an icon. It’s history”, said onlooker Zoe Freeman, who works nearby. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back”, read a new Facebook post with pictures of the wall about to be cleaned. They also say a few drunk people have been spotted eating the gum off the wall!
Bizarrely, the cleaning crew will collect and weigh the gum each day it is removed.
People have been sticking their multicolored wads on the wall and its surroundings for two decades.
There haven’t been any regulations put in place – no bubble gum wall bans, if you will – passed in Seattle though, so the bubble gum wall may make a triumphant return in the next 20 years. The cleaning is slated to take three days to complete. “‘This is probably the weirdest job we’ve done, ‘ Foster said”.
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Pike Place official Emily Crawford said the cleaning is meant to restore the “character and the history of the Market”, according to a National Public Radio post.
