The seventeenth century is the only recorded date relevant to the decay of the North-South Road: it was the time when the maintainers of the road were withdrawn from Tharbad in its middle reaches, far to the south of Bree. At this time the North-kingdom had been at war for several hundred years, and the segment of the Road under its control may already have begun to fall into disrepair.

Actually, the termini of the North-South Road are not established with certainty, but Annúminas and Osgiliath were the capitals of the North- and South-kingdoms at the time the road was built, and it seems unlikely that the Dúnedain would build a road across Middle-earth without connecting their two main cities. Nonetheless, we have no canonical map showing the road continuing beyond Fornost in the North (as shown on the map for this entry).