"Look well to your seat, 'tis like- taking an airing/On a corduroy road, and that out of repairing."
James Russell Lowell, "A Fable for Critics"
Nicknamed corduroy roads, log-laid roads consist of whole logs, or logs split down the middle, that are laid across the roadway, one tightly against the next, to create a resistant road surface over swampy or muddy land. Sand is used to cover the surface and reduce the discomfort of traveling over the corduroy-like surface.
Despite enabling easier travel through once inaccessible places, corduroy roads could be dangerous for the user. In the best of conditions the ride was already bumpy and uncomfortable, but if rain washed away the sandy cover or logs became loose or wet, the surface became highly hazardous to horses and any vehicles that were attached to them. The first known log-laid road was constructed in 4000 B.C.E. Evidence of corduroy roads,
more...