The Gum Wall
Friday, 5th November 2010 by Alex Turnbull
In Post Alley, Seattle, there is a brick wall that has become one of the most bizarre tourist destinations we've ever encountered - and here on Google Sightseeing we've encountered some really bizarre ones.
Post Alley happens to be where people queue to get into the Market Theatre and since around 1993 they've been sticking their used chewing gum to the wall of the alley. The proprietors of the theatre cleaned the wall a couple of times in the mid-1990s, but eventually they had to give up, and instead decided it should be a tourist attraction, so The Gum Wall was born.
Today there are hundreds of thousands of pieces of brightly coloured gum stuck to the walls of Post Alley, some stuck up to 20 feet high. People visit the wall specifically to add their own pieces of gum, and have taken to forming mini gummy-artworks, or writing their initials. Here we see that the Street View car actually captured a couple of women taking turns chewing and sticking the gum.
Perhaps even more astonishing than the fact that thousands of bits of old, chewed, synthetic rubber stuck to a wall have become an actual tourist destination, is that there's another one in San Luis Obispo, California: Bubblegum Alley.
In fact, Bubblegum Alley has been around a lot longer - since at least the 1970s, and possibly even earlier. Due to Bubblegum Alley's age, today the gum almost completely covers the walls on both sides of the 21 metre-long alley.
Google Street View however won't be visiting Bubblegum Alley in any more detail, at least not until their recording equipment slims down a bit.
All of this oddity makes us wonder, could there be an even more disgusting tourist destination elsewhere in the world?
More on The Gum Wall and Bubblegum Alley at Wikipedia.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
My history teacher said (jokingly) that if he caught anyone chewing gum, he’d make you put in the on a wall. The next person who was caught had to put theirs on the wall… and take the days-old gum of the other guy XD. Guess they took it literally!
The railings and other structures leading from the car park to the entrance of the Eden Project in Cornwall are stickered with…stickers. People leaving the Project have stuck the stickers on rails, rubbish bins, signs, etc etc.
http://www.edenproject.com/
If you go to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, and visit the White Water Walk, halfway to the Whirlpool, at the very end of the boardwalk, the wall is similarly covered in gum. Gross.
This has got to be the nastiest. thing. ever. I demand a scientific analysis of potential health risks and brick damage. Quick!
Is this in the Guinness book or records somewhere? Most chewing gums on wall? lol
There’s a really nasty tree at Disney World like this. Not something you want to lean against when you need to take a break!
Ewwwwwwww
In Maplewood, N.J., near the middle school on Baker Street, there is a railroad underpass that is similarly decorated with gum. Maybe it is because it is near the middle school. So cool.