Seattle’s disgustingly awesome 'gum wall' is about to get melted away

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Will / Flickr

For 20 years, visitors to Seattle's famous Pike's Place Market have been sticking gum to what has become simply known as "The Gum Wall." 

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Like everything else that's beautiful, it's about to die. On Tuesday, to be precise.

Here are a few images of what we're losing.

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The Gum Wall is in the heart of Seattle's tourist district.

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Google Maps

It's beside the Pike's Place market.

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Andrew E. Larsen / flickr
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That's the place where presidential candidates try to catch fish.

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Joe Raedle / Getty

The Gum Wall is situated in a nearby alleyway called Post Alley.

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evelynquek / Flickr
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It's estimated to be 50 feet wide by 15 feet high. The Pike's Place tourism board estimates that ONE MILLION pieces are stuck to the wall.

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Eli Duke / Flickr

It dates back to the grungy days of the early 1990s, when people waiting to get into a nearby improv theater stuck their gum to the wall.

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Davis Staedtler / Flickr
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Though the city tried getting rid of the gum at first, it eventually embraced it. According to 'Gross America' author Richard Faulk, it was an official Seattle landmark by 2000. The gum didn't break down because — surprise — it's synthetic.

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Will / Flickr

"Now, it's a stupid gimmick to be sure, a wall full of other people's used chewing gum," Faulk writes. "Still, when you approach the multi-colored dots of fruit-flavored gum arrayed in broken patterns against the old brick warehouse walls, shimmering like a pointillist painting, it is rather beautiful."

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This Pilgrim's Progress / Flickr
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On Tuesday, an industrial steam machine will use steam to melt the gum, which will then be collected, and as the Seattle Times reports, weighed to see just how much gum there was.

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T.Tseng / Flickr

The good news for public art lovers: the wall will be a fresh canvas for gum yet to be chewed.

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Joe Ruiz / Flickr
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