The Dwarf-road still existed at the end of the Third Age, but by the later decades of that Age it had become effectively unusable. A series of earthquakes attributed to Smaug in nearby Erebor, coupled with unusually heavy rains, caused the Long Marshes to extend southwards down the river Running and along the eastern edges of Mirkwood. Where the Dwarf-road emerged from beneath the trees, the roadway was lost among the waters of the marshes.
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