Big Macs by the “Big Mac”
Two icons: McDonald's "Big Mac" sandwich and the Daniel Carter Beard "Big Mac" Bridge. The pair seem like a perfect match for a corporate fast food marketing gimmick.
They almost were.
The Daniel Carter Beard "Big Mac" Bridge as viewed from the Kentucky shore, looking towards Ohio.
Cincinnati is known for its bridges that span the Ohio River, connecting to Kentucky. The Roebling was a prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge, the Brent Spence served as the backdrop for a presidential speech, and the “Purple People” carries pedestrians through its uniquely colored structure while the Taylor-Southgate, Clay Wade Bailey, C&O, and Southern bridges provide industrial arteries for automobiles and freight trains on weathered steel.
Then there's the yellow one, on the East side above the park. Everyone here calls it the "Big Mac," but its official name is the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge. You'd be hard pressed to find a local who use the official name in casual conversation, though.
The bridge as viewed from Cincinnati's Mt. Adams looking towards Kentucky in 2010.
The bridge opened in 1981 to serve as the river crossing for Kentucky's then-new Interstate 471. It was named after Daniel Carter Beard, the founder of the “Sons of Daniel Boone” (who later merged to become the Boy Scouts of America). However, "Uncle Dan" doesn't get much recognition even though the river crossing is named after him. The bridge's superstructure features parallel, yellow support structures and resembles the “golden arches” in the logo of fast food giant McDonalds:
Not that you need to see an image of what the McDonald's logo looks like, it's one of the most recognized symbols on this planet. Given their visual similarity, you'd almost think that the bridge was a civic project pushed forth by Mayor McCheese, the former politically themed mascot of the fast food conglomerate.
Before disappearing in 2003, McCheese ran unopposed in every election despite never delivering on his promise to stop the “Hamburglar.”
The nickname stuck, but just how did it get started? What made everyone start referring to the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge as the "Big Mac Bridge?” That’s a bit of an urban legend.
When you ask around, some remember the nickname first being coined by a Cincinnati traffic reporter, but no one can seem to remember exactly which reporter it was. Maybe it just happened naturally—people putting two and two together until the nickname became part of the Losantiville Lexicon. Some believed, though, that the name came about because McDonald's wanted to build a floating restaurant on the Kentucky shore.
So what came first: the chicken or the egg? Or in this case: The nickname or the restaurant?
The "Big Mac" bridge as seen from a helicopter ride in 2012. The Hooters and Beer Sellar floating restaurants can be seen at the top right of the photograph.
I know what you're thinking and you're right: there's no McDonald's boat on the Ohio and there never was. A few weeks ago I wrote about the eateries you can currently find on the river and a McDonald's wasn't one of them. Apparently though, there was supposed to be one. The first reference I ever saw to the "boatraunt" that never came to be was via Cincinnati-Transit.net, an excellent guide to the Queen City's infrastructure by photographer and good friend Jake Mecklenborg. In Jake's article on the bridge he wrote:
"The nickname stems from an early 1980's attempt by McDonald's to open a floating restaurant on the Newport Riverfront, where Hooters is today."
But what I wanted to know was: Did the nickname develop from McDonald's attempt to build a restaurant or did McDonald's want to build a restaurant because of the bridge's nickname?
Or simply: was there ever really a plan for McDonald's to build a floating restaurant at all?
The Cincinnati skyline as seen through the "Golden Arches" of the bridge.
All across the world there's doctors searching for cures to disease and reasons why people find Dane Cook funny. Graduate students spend endless hours in libraries researching their dissertations. Lawyers comb through page after page of court decisions to help their clients.
Me? I'm in a parking lot photographing the iconic McDonald's menu item known as the Big Mac. When I'm done, I'm going to enjoy that delicious concoction of two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun before I comb the internet trying to figure out what happened to the floating McDonald's we never got.
I can't find anything though. Jake's article seems to be the only record indicating that McDonald's had once hoped to sail a fast food ship on the River Ohio. Other websites mention the notion, but rip off Jake's article verbatim. A few old Cincinnati Magazine's archived on Google Books reference the fast food company's plans, but don't elaborate. There's nothing official—no records, no plans, no quotes.
Nothing.
Had Cincinnatians invented the idea of a floating McDonald's just as they had invented the nickname "Big Mac Bridge?"
The idea wasn't too crazy. In the 80's, McDonalds was constructing a fleet of floating restaurants and had built one on the shores of Midwestern neighbor, St. Louis.
The St. Louis floating McDonald's. Photograph by David Wilson.
The very first McDonald's restaurant opened in California in 1940. Today there are 33,000+ McDonald's locations spread out among 118 nations—14,000 of them in the United States alone. You can't pull off a freeway exit in this country without finding one or eight of them. Despite being everywhere, McDonald's has created some pretty unique locations. They've built restaurants out of old airplanes, above highways, in colonial mansions and in nearly every tourist spot across the globe. In 1980, they constructed a fake steamboat on top of a barge and plopped it right in front of the Gateway Arch on the Mississippi River. The floating McDonald's concept was continued with a second location that opened at Expo86 in Vancouver, Canada:
The “McBarge.”
St. Louis, Vancouver—why not a floating restaurant in Cincinnati as well? The marketing writes itself: "Big Macs by the ‘Big Mac!’" Was the idea just an urban legend or had McDonald's really wanted to add to its fleet with a location on the Ohio River? After I couldn't find the answer, I did what any great researcher would do : I posed the question to Facebook.
Ann Senefeld of Digging Cincinnati History came up with the truth and pointed me in the right direction. With the help of her and the Public Library of Cincinnati, the true story of the floating restaurant we never had was revealed:
Pet the Cincinnati Enquirer on May 22, 1982: the nickname came first!
The above article points out that McDonald's was planning to build a ship in Newport, KY that would've cost nearly $2 Million. The fast food giant was going to acquire the New Tri-City Yacht club and use its spot on the river. There were a few concerns though: the city of Newport's image and the fact that the restaurant could be cut off by the construction for entrance/exit ramps to the bridge. A year later, the restaurant plans were scuttled:
Despite the fact that I-471 and the bridge were open, on/off ramps weren't in place to connect the highway to KY-8—the main thoroughfare along Newport's riverfront yet. Local residents had opposed the ramp construction. Eventually the ramps were built, but McDonald's never seemed to revisit their floating restaurant concept in Newport.
KY-8 passing beneath an overpass of the Big Mac bridge with signs indicating the entrance and exit ramps for I-471.
Had the restaurant been built, it would've existed at the foot of Beech St. in Newport. Today, Beech St. dead ends with no connection to the riverfront.
Newport's Beech St. dead ends with a barrier and sidewalk preventing its connection to KY-8.
The restaurant's approximate location would've put it on the Eastern side of the bridge creating a photogenic setting with a "Big Mac Bridge" and Cincinnati skyline backdrop.
Today the approximate location is served by a riverfront restaurant, albeit it not a floating one though, in the form of a Don Pablo's:
So the legend and rumors were true. McDonald's had tried to build a waterfront restaurant to capitalize on the "Big Mac Bridge." The circumstances at the time though prevented it from happening and the idea never seemed to return. What would it have been like? A tourist attraction? Decorated as a steamboat like the one in rival river city St. Louis? Futuristic like the Vancouver boat from Expo 86? Would Cincy's floating "Big Mac" boat still be around today?
We'll never know what it would've been like to have our floating fast food tourist attraction, but what ever happened to the other two locations in the McDonald's fleet?
The "McBarge" as it can be seen today. Image via Wikipedia.
The "McBarge" that debuted at Expo86 in Vancouver operated throughout the festival's spring-fall season. At the close of the exposition though, the location never reopened and sat abandoned until 1991 when it was towed away. Since then, owners have changed and the corporate branding has been stripped from the vessel. Its been floating and rotting away in a Vancouver inlet ever since. Multiple ideas for restaurants and even a homeless shelter have been proposed, but nothing has ever come of the plans.
St. Louis floating McDondalds postcard.
The St. Louis location appears to have ceased being a McDonald's in 2005 or so. It has since been repurposed as the "Arch View Cafe," which operates from April-October and seems to serve somewhat standard fast food type fare, but the golden arches are long gone.
The closest McDonald's ever got to the riverfront in KY.
Although the floating McDonald's never materialized here in Cincinnati, a McDonald's did sprout up a few blocks away in nearby Bellevue, KY. You can always swing by and then walk down to the riverfront to enjoy a Big Mac by the Big Mac while reminiscing on the tourist attraction that never was.
Update | August 4, 2021
The former St. Louis floating McDonalds is now closed and gone.
The “McBarge” was floated to somewhere else in British Columbia, but has still never reopened.
The Newport, KY Don Pablo’s closed and is now an independent Tex-Mex restaurant.
Update | April 27, 2022
For another story about McDonald’s architecture, here’s one about the corporation’s iconic roof style that’s now a rarity of the American roadside.