You can't build very deep here. Not with the ocean right there. Nothing under there but sand. He doesn't suffer fools gladly, but since half the people working the boardwalk filter through his office at some point in the summer, he's had a lot of practice. Erwin repeats the question, his eyes widening.
Some merchants have half-cellars to stow provisions . . .
Oh, I know what you mean. There was a time in the 1920s when hotels had trenches dug under the boardwalk for pathways to the beach, so people could go bathing without having to go onto the boardwalk. That's all gone now.