Seattle’s sticky, rainbow-colored Gum Wall has attracted tourists for 20 years and has dominated #Seattle Instagram posts, but now the Pike Place staple is being removed by industrial steamers.
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Called the “gum wall”, it’s a landmark where locals and visitors alike have squished and stuck more than 1 million pieces of old chewing gum on an alleyway wall.
The Gum Wall became to be in 1991 when Market Theater customers began sticking gum on the wall while waiting in line. The entire job is expected to cost $4,000 and began Tuesday.
This week a worker in a plastic protective suit and mask used a steam cleaner to blast off parts of the wall where many have used their gum to anchor photos, love notes, business cards and artwork.
Co-host Tom Curley, a frequenter of the gum wall, sees no point.
In a cheeky press release, the market let the brick wall speak for itself. Since then, the “gum wall” has expanded beyond one wall and onto other walls of an alley, pipes and even the theatre’s box office window.
Market officials decided now was as good a time as any for the clean-up, but they expect people will start leaving gum on the space again soon. “But it also draws rats”, an onlooker says. I think it’s a great thing, it shows us we can start over, clean slate.
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By Crawford’s rough calculation, there are about 2,200 pounds of gum on the walls. This enormous chewing gum-encrusted wall in the US has been subject to an extensive clean up operation – and the pictures are not pretty.
