Several operators run boat tours on the Sacramento River from the Old Sacramento waterfront, ranging from one-hour sightseeing cruises to dinner cruises that travel south toward the Delta. The river view of Sacramento — looking east at the Tower Bridge and the Old Sacramento levee — is the best angle from which to understand the city's geography and relationship to its waterway.
The Sacramento River below the city flows through the Delta, a maze of channels and artificial islands created by 19th-century dredging that now holds some of the most unusual agricultural land in California. Delta boat tours venture into this landscape; the longer excursions reach the small town of Locke, one of the last remaining Chinatown communities from the era when Chinese labourers drained and farmed the Delta marshland.