In pioneer times streches of swampy ground were made somewhat passable by laying logs across them in a pattern that reminded people of corduroy. Scadding tells how in walking up Yonge Street in those times (between Davisville and Eglinton) “A tract of rough country was now reached, difficult to clear and difficult to traverse with a vehicle. Here a genuine corduroy causeway was encountered, a long series of small saw-logs laid side by side over which wheels jolted deliberately. In the wet season portions of it, being afloat, would undulate under the weight of a passing load; and occasionally a horse’s leg would be entrapped, and possibly snapped short by the sudden yielding or revolution of one of the cylinders below.” Miles Historical Atlas of York, 1878, p XI, states: ““A tract of rough country was now reached, difficult to clear and difficult to traverse with a vehicle. Here a genuine corduroy road was encountered over which wheels jolted deliberately. In the wet season portions of it, being afloat, would undulate under the weight of a passing load”.
People traveling along corduroy road c1815