This Floating McDonald's Was Abandoned In 1986 - Here's What It Looks Like In 2026

There isn't much variation in how McDonald's locations look these days. Now that the restaurants are being optimized for takeout rather than dine-in service, there's even less reason to rock the boat with unusual designs, hence why so many of them look like warehouses. But there are still a few interesting locations that survive today. There's the UFO-shaped McDonald's in Roswell, New Mexico (where else?); the fancy McDonald's in Freeport, Maine that went viral on TikTok; and, once upon a time, a McDonald's located on a floating barge. It's long since closed (and capsized, for that matter), but still, what a cool thing to exist, right?

The floating McDonald's, known officially as Friendship 500 but more affectionately as the "McBarge," was built for Expo 86, a transportation-themed world's fair hosted in Vancouver, Canada. (Yes, they were still kind of having world's fairs in the 1980s, weird as it is to imagine.) Designed to show off future technology, the McBarge was theoretically able to continue in its capacity as a McDonald's anywhere the water took it. But, in practice, it was not to be. Not long after the expo ended, the McBarge was moored in nearby Burrard Inlet, where it sat for close to 30 years, perhaps longing to serve hot burgers and fries to an adoring populace that would never come. (We assume, anyway; we don't know what a barge thinks.)

Now, it wouldn't be true to say that nothing has happened to the McBarge since those halcyon days at Expo 86. Back in 2003, it was used as a filming location for "Blade: Trinity" — a film which remains the latest entry in the Blade franchise, despite the best efforts of Mahershala Ali. And in 2009, the barge's owner, a businessman named Howard Meakin suggested using it as the centerpiece of a redevelopment project on the Fraser River, which was eventually shut down by pushback over environmental issues related to float plane noise.

Meakin took the barge to Maple River (which is a town, not a river) for renovations in 2016, later describing plans to turn the McBarge into a seafood restaurant — which could have been a nice, novel use for the old vessel, were it not for the unfortunate fact that, as of 2025, it's underwater. The McBarge partially capsized in the Fraser River, and, as Meakin died not long after the boat tipped over, it remains unclear who really owns the ship or what could be done with it. It's a shame, if you ask us. Wouldn't some of McDonald's best-selling fries go hard on the dock of a majestic yuppie barge?