Goodbye to Seattle’s Post Alley Gum Wall

The Gum Wall is being washed away with hot sprays of water

Seattle city officials began the action early this morning in an attempt to remove the famous 'Gum Wall' which stretches over historic buildings overlooking Seattle's Puget Sound. The Market Theater Gum Wall is a local landmark in downtown Seattle, in Post Alley under Pike Place Market. Similar to Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo, California, the Market Theater Gum Wall is a brick alleyway wall covered in used chewing gum. Parts of the wall are covered several inches thick, 15 feet high for 50 feet
The wall is by the box office for the Market Theater, and the tradition began around 1993 when patrons of Unexpected Productions' Seattle Theatresports stuck gum to the wall and placed coins in the gum blobs. The wall with its 24-year-old history of gums was steam cleaned due to sugar erosion. It is estimated around 1 million pieces of gum have been stuck to the walls of Post Alley since it was begun by theater .

It had become an attraction for thousands of people how have flocked to the area to take selfies in front of the wall. Business cards and hand-written notes fell to the floor, as the crew got rid of one of the city's most famous landmarks. Officials scrubbed, steamed and scratched away years worth of hardened chewing gum in the operation.