Photos: The End of Seattle's Beloved Albeit Disgusting Gum Wall

By
Watching the decades-old monument bite the dust.
11_13_GumWall_04
Photos: The End of Seattle's Beloved Albeit Disgusting Gum Wall Winston Ross for Newsweek

For 20 years, tourists and locals have been smearing gum to the wall in Seattle's Post Alley. But as the economy rebounded over the past year, the wall expanded out of control, and Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA) finally has begun dismantling it.

The plan: steam, scrape, rake and shovel gum, up to a million pieces of it.

The wall grew at a reasonable pace over most of the past 20 years and remained only about 8 feet wide. But this summer, the gum wall exploded. It's now in second place on TripAdvisor's "World's Germiest Attractions" list, just behind Blarney Stone in Ireland. Pike Place Market had one of its best years ever. But just as Paris has been snipping the "locks of love" weighing down its bridges and just as Venice has been contemplating charging tourists money just to walk into the city, Seattle has decided to spend $4,000 to hire a company to outsource the gum wall's obliteration.

Using steam heated to 280 degrees, workers with Cascadia Building Maintenance blast gum from Post Alley at Pike Place Market. Winston Ross for Newsweek