. Back then, Clark worked with the McDonald’s brothers to conceive a memorable but functional design; after all, they were conceptualizing the most modern take of a drive-in that had already become popular in Southern California by the 1930s., Richard McDonald decided to add gold arches to the building based on the “feeling that the roof line was a bit too flat.” At the time, actual arches curved over the building as part of the building. Still, those arches didn’t have the look they have today.
It was years later, in 1962, that the Golden Arches actually became part of the McDonald’s logo. Ray Kroc had been working as a franchise agent with the McDonalds brothers for 13 years by the time a U.S. . That same year, the Golden Arches as we know them in their overlapping twin form became standard.
“The Golden Arches have been a beacon to customers since the 1960s, when McDonald’s began updating its single-arch Speedee signs at restaurants across the U.S.,” McDonald’s USA said in a statement to ."You can still find the original signs at a few select locations, which have become popular destinations for road-trippers and history buffs alike.
McDonald’s did not confirm the number of single-golden-arch locations that exist today. According to , however, of the 38,000 plus McDonald’s locations around the globe, 12 of these long-standing spots still exist.