A few individuals watch as crews build scaffolding around the base of the massive pedestal that once held the Robert E. Lee Confederate statue. It took almost one month for crews, working day and night, to dismantle the empty pedestal. As they worked, they discovered 2 time capsules that had been buried over a century before. Installed in 1890, the Lee statue that sat atop the massive pedestal was removed on September 8, 2021, after months of protests and court battles. Crowds of onlookers applauded as the 12 ton, 61-foot-tall statue was lowered to the ground. The statue of Lee sitting astride his horse was so large that it had to be cut in half before it could be transported away from the site. The monument sat on a tree lined boulevard aptly named "Monument Avenue". The avenue is lined with large affluent homes and until recently, it was punctuated with 5 massive Confederate statues. After the social justice protests, the unified calls for justice and reform, and several court cases, all five of Monument Avenue’s Confederate statues, as well as other statues around the city, were removed and their pedestals were dismantled.