About this tag

“NO BOTTOM” sounds a little ominous, but to a riverboat pilot it was good news. A crewman would sound the river with a marked line or pole and call the depth back to the wheelhouse. “Mark twain” meant two fathoms, or 12 feet. When the sounding gear couldn’t reach the riverbed, the call was “no bottom.” It’s one of the little bits of old river language embedded along the Riverwalk near Lannan Park.