There are two golden arches in the McDonald's logo. Together, they form the familiar golden “M” associated with the restaurant chain.
The arches began as real architectural features, not merely as a graphic symbol. In 1953, architect Stanley Clark Meston designed a McDonald's restaurant in Phoenix with two large yellow arches intended to make the building visible from the road. The design was later adapted into the company's logo.
Jim Schindler transformed the arches into an “M”-like emblem in 1962, and McDonald's introduced the modern version of the Golden Arches logo in 1968. The physical arches disappeared from most restaurant buildings during the 1960s, but the symbol remained.
A common mix-up is counting the logo as one letter or one combined shape. It is visually an “M,” but that “M” is formed from two distinct arches. Some individual restaurant signs have used only one arch, but that does not change the standard logo answer.