On Tuesday, cleaners began melting it all off.
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Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end – and so must the unsavoury history of this wall.
If you’ve ever traveled to Seattle, you’ve likely visited the famous Gum Wall at Pike Place Market.
The creative spirit of Seattle’s residents is unlikely to be stifled, however, and they expect people will start leaving gum on the space again soon. Notice the “was” in that sentence, because it was finally taken down with a super powerful steam gun.
The industrial strength cleaning will not mean the gum-sticking tradition will die, Mercedes Carrabba, owner of Market Ghost Tours in the marketplace, told the NPR station.
The market hired a contractor to use steam because pressure washing would damage the historic building.
“It´s an icon. It´s history”.
Over the years, the gum grew to cover an area of the wall eight feet in height and 54 feet wide, with about 150 pieces of gum per brick.
Crawford added that while the much-photographed wall was colourful and drew visitors, it was also germ-infested.
People first began sticking gum to the wall while waiting for shows at a nearby theater. Since then, it has expanded beyond one wall and on to other walls of an alley, pipes and even the theatre’s box office window.
“The machine will melt the gum with 280-degree steam; it will fall to the ground, and a two- to three-man crew will collect the gum in five-gallon buckets”.
The cleaning, expected to take three days, has pleased a few and upset many in Seattle and across social media.
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It’s estimated that there are about 1 million wads of gum that need to be removed.
