Cut. A cut is a man-made feature resulting
from cutting through raised ground, usually to form a
level bed for a road or railroad track. Cuts are shown on
a map when they are at least 10 feet high, and they are
drawn with a contour line along the cut line. This
contour line extends the length of the cut and has tick
marks that extend from the cut line to the roadbed, if
the map scale permits this level of detail (Figure
10-25).