After an exciting afternoon the day before crews returned to Monument Avenue early on the morning of July 2nd to dismantle the Matthew Fontaine Maury statue. The team of specialists determined they would only remove the figure of Maury at this point and return on another day with more equipment to take down the giant 7,000 Ibs globe component.
Compared to Stonewall Jackson the extraction of the smaller seated figure of Maury was an easy task. Crews arrived and affixed straps around the figure and then used a hydraulic lift to hoist it from the pedestal. After an hour of work the statue was packed on a truck to be hauled off to temporary storage.
Around 11:15 AM the statue removal crews moved back a few blocks on Monument and lifted a cannon that marked the outer fortifications of Richmond during the Civil War. They also moved further east on Monument and extracted another cannon that served as a marker for the inner fortifications of Richmond.
With the removal of the Maury statue and the cannons the monument removal team wrapped up their work for the week with plans to return after the Independence Day holiday. The next big project: The J.E.B. Stuart equestrian statue at the intersection of Lombardy & Monument
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