How were trails on the side of mountains made?

Question

You know those roads where if you turn to hard/late, then you’ll end up dropping 2000 ft off a cliff? Yeah my brain cannot comprehend how they were made. I know most trails are made by people/horses constantly walking over it. But the fact that these trails are almost perfectly made for transportation, and are just casually on the side of a mountain confuses me.

In: Other

Answer 1

Before dynamite, excavators, or jack hammers, they would sometimes build a large fire and throw water on hot rock to fracture it into movable chunks. It was a slow process but it was a better option to build a trail than pickaxes in some scenarios.