Gum Wall facts for kids

The Gum Wall is a brick wall covered in used chewing gum in Downtown Seattle, Washington. It's found in Post Alley, right under the famous Pike Place Market. This unique wall is covered in gum that's several inches thick in some places. It reaches about 15 feet (4.6 meters) high and stretches for 50 feet (15 meters). The Gum Wall started by accident in the 1990s and has since become a popular tourist attraction and a local landmark.

How the Gum Wall Started

The Gum Wall is next to the Market Theater, a place where people watch comedy shows. In 1991, people waiting for shows started sticking their used gum on the wall. They even pushed pennies into the gum!

At first, officials from the Pike Place Market tried to clean the wall. They wanted the gum removed. But the gum kept coming back. Around 1999, the officials changed their minds. They realized the Gum Wall was becoming a fun tourist spot, so they decided to let it stay.

By the late 2000s, the wall was covered in gum for about 50 feet (15 meters) and reached up to 20 feet (6.1 meters) high. Some creative visitors even used their gum to make small art pieces on the wall.

Since 1999, the Gum Wall has been one of the most famous places to visit near Pike Place Market. Thousands of people come to see it every year, and many add their own piece of gum to the wall.

A Sticky Situation: The Big Clean-Up

In 2015, the Pike Place Market officials decided to clean the Gum Wall completely. They did this to protect the bricks from the sugar in the gum, which could damage them over time. This was the first time the entire wall had been cleaned in 20 years!

The cleaning was a big deal for Seattle residents and fans of the wall. To celebrate, Pike Place Market officials held a photo contest. People shared their favorite pictures and memories of the Gum Wall online.

The cleaning started on November 10, 2015. It took 130 hours to finish. Workers used special steam cleaning machines that reached very high temperatures (up to 280°F or 138°C). This steam helped remove the gum without harming the bricks. In total, over 2,350 pounds (1,066 kilograms) of gum were removed and thrown away. The cleaning cost about $4,000.

Right after the cleaning, people immediately started adding new gum to the wall again! There were no rules to stop them. Some of the new gum pieces were even memorials to the November 2015 Paris attacks, which had happened shortly before the cleaning.

Why the Gum Wall is Special

The Gum Wall is often called a type of participatory art or conceptual art. This means that the art is created by many people working together, and the idea behind it is important. Even though sticking gum on a wall might seem messy, many people see it as a unique piece of "collective art." It shows how something ordinary can become something special when many people contribute to it.

The Gum Wall has gained a lot of attention. In 2009, it was even named one of the top 5 "germiest" tourist attractions, second only to the Blarney Stone in Ireland! Washington state's governor, Jay Inslee, once said it was his "favorite thing about Seattle you can't find anywhere else."

The Gum Wall is also a popular spot for wedding photos and is the starting point for some ghost tours. Visitors sometimes create messages of love out of gum, making it a romantic spot, similar to places like the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris where people used to attach "love locks."

See also

In Spanish: Gum Wall para niños