a road that ended as no roads end—except at the sea

[Coffee Break]

I encountered the expression "a road that ended as no roads end—except at the sea", but am finding it difficult to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:

But before any odds were laid, Dick and Ernie broke into a run and raced each other to the next corner. Mr. Stevens saw them stop, and stand quite still, side by side, looking down the road, shading their eyes from the sun. Then Dick turned and called out, “Guess!”

But the others had reached the corner now. For a moment they all stood together, gazing down a road that ended as no roads end—except at the sea. Between the last houses just a square blue space—a low line of railings and a narrow strip of silver light.

- R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 12

This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. Having arrived at Bognor, their destination, they are walking down the road and are now looking at the sea.

In this part, I am not sure what the underlined expression means.
I tried to understand the sentence as "a road which ends in a unique way, in a different manner from the manner in which other roads end", but I am not sure whether I am going in the right direction.

Also, I cannot grasp how "except at the sea" is connected to the rest of the sentence, and what it means, so I just wanted to ask you.

 

[Tarheel]

I'm afraid it doesn't make sense to me. It's a phrase I've never encountered before, and I don't understand it.

 

[SoothingDave]

There are dead end street all over the place. Roads that just end.

Only at the sea, do dead end streets end with a lovely view of the water.

 

[Tarheel]

Perhaps:

a road that ends as no other roads end -- at the sea.

 

[5jj]

... gazing down a road that ended as no roads ever end—except roads that lead to the sea.

 

[Coffee Break]

@Tarheel, @SoothingDave, @5jj,

Thank you very much for the explanations.
It indeed is a puzzling expression!

Then it would mean that they gazed down a road. And the manner in which that road ended was not the same as any other road-ends. That road ended just like the roads that end at the sea. (I hope I understood correctly. )

But I am slightly confused at "as no roads end"... Would it be that "roads end" itself is a noun, rather than the combination of a subject and a verb...?

 

[Barque]

But I am slightly confused at "as no roads end"

It's a subject and a verb.
As no roads end = As not a single road ends/As no other roads end.

There's a famous line from the TV series Star Trek, "Where no man has gone before". That could also be said as "Where no men have gone before".

The majority of roads don't end at the sea. This was different. This ended in a way most other roads didn't end. So the writer says it ended as no [other] roads end.
However there's an exception. Roads that end at the sea do end this way, and therefore the writer used the words "except at the sea".

If you look at it closely, he's stating the obvious. He's essentially saying, "This road was different from all others, except the ones similar to it"! But he put it in a way that sounded impressive.

 

[Tarheel]

Every road has to end at some point. The writer thought for some reason that one was special. (Who knows why?)

 

[Tarheel]

@Coffee Break Try Moby Dick. It's rather long, but since I have already read that one I can be more helpful with it.