🔍 Key Concepts

• Inland river channel terminology used on charts and in navigation texts • The meaning of draft (or draught) in ship handling • How bridges and river bends are described (e.g., draw spans, cutoffs, and crossings)

💭 Think About

• Think about what physically happens when the main navigable channel leaves one bank and goes across to the other—what would pilots and charts want to call that specific place? • Which of these terms is commonly used for a vessel characteristic, rather than a location on the river? • Which term is usually associated with bridges or man‑made openings, and which with natural or artificial changes in the river’s course?

✅ Before You Answer

• Identify which option refers to a vessel’s vertical depth in the water, not a feature of the river. • Identify which option is most often used to describe a movable span of a bridge rather than the riverbed itself. • Ask yourself: on river pilot charts, what term is used at points where the navigable channel shifts from one bank toward the opposite bank?