Everything about Corduroy Road totally explained
A
Corduroy road or
log road is a type of
road made by placing
sand-covered
logs
perpendicular to the direction of the road over a low or
swampy area. The result is an improvement over impassable mud or dirt roads, yet is a bumpy ride in the best of conditions and a hazard to
horses due to loose logs that can roll and shift. This type of road was already constructed in
Roman times. It is known to have been used as early as 4,000 BC with examples found in
Glastonbury, England . Compare the puncheon or
plank road, which uses hewn boards instead of logs, resulting in a smoother and safer surface.
Corduroy roads can also be built as a foundation for other surfacing. If the logs are buried in wet,
acidic,
anaerobic soils such as
peat or
muskeg they decay very slowly. A few corduroy road foundations that date back to the early 20th century still exist in the United States. One example is the
Alaska Highway between Burwash Landing and Koidern,
Yukon, which was rebuilt in
1943, less than a year after the original route was graded on thin soil and vegetation over
permafrost, by using corduroy, then building gravel road over top. During the
1980s, the gravel was itself covered with a
chip-seal. During the late
1990s, this corduroy-underlain road began to be replaced with modern road construction, including rerouting of the entire highway.
In a
slang application, "Corduroy Road" can also apply to a road in ill repair, having many holes, discernible ruts, or surface swellings and one on which travel is unpleasant, or capable of harming the
vehicles travelling on it.
Corduroy roads were used extensively in the
American Civil War in
Sherman's March through the Carolinas and in World War II by both German and Soviet forces on the
Eastern Front. In the Pacific Northwest corduroy roads built of huge logs and without the sand covering were the mainstay of local logging practices and were known as
skid roads. Two of these, respectively on the outskirts of the milltowns of
Seattle and
Vancouver, which had become concentrations of bars and working man's slum, were the origin of the more widespread meaning of "skid road" and its derivative
skid row, referring to a poor area or one given over to sleazy strip-club.
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