sans issue

The only dead end streets I know of in Brooklyn are roads that had once continued but were divided when another road or structure was built. As far as I know, few cul-de-sacs were built for their own sake, as was the one I got caught in yesterday on a walk in my sister's neighborhood in Cape Elizabeth, Me. The sac was vacant of all but a few crows, there are many many here, so I felt free to cut through a backyard that was stacked with lobster traps and a few large boats to get back where I started without having to retrace my steps.

I just read that Voltaire thought the term cul-de-sac was very rude and used the word impasse instead, but this confuses me because I don't believe they had any developments or gated communities in the 18th Century. So what did people use the phrase meaning "end of a bag" to refer to back then?

I came to another impasse yesterday, I found a snow covered road that went through a beautiful marsh which had trees spread out in such a way as to create an unusually appealing sense of depth. Suddenly the road ended in front of a small rivulet which hadn't frozen, maybe the water was brackish. A sapling with several thin trunks leaned in and a delicate ridge of ice resembling some ancient calligraphy was slowly being eaten away by the air that surrounded it on all sides but one.