SAN ANTONIO — For more than 100 years, a Confederate monument stood in San Antonio's Travis Park.

But late Thursday night, that all changed.

City workers took down a statue of a Confederate soldier with two cannons overnight without incident — to cheers from a small group of people happy to see them removed.

"I'm really proud of my city. I think this is an important step forward," San Antonio resident Allie Segura said.

There was a heavy police presence as the monument was taken down and loaded onto an 18-wheeler.

Just hours before, the San Antonio City Council voted to remove it from the park after passionate debate from both sides.

"I hope they put it somewhere where they can hold it and people can visit it, a museum or something like that," San Antonio resident Ray Escamilla said. "It's a bit tough, because I can see both sides of it."

The cannons and statue have been taken to an undisclosed location until the city can figure out where to put them.

"I really am pushing very hard to make sure this statue ultimately resides in a place where it's safe, a respectful place, where the entire context and meaning of the statue is on display, but publicly accessible so that this generation and the one after that can learn from it," City Councilman Manny Pelaez said.

The removal of Confederate symbols isn't a first for the area.

Two years ago, Bexar County removed all Confederate symbols from county property — including the one on the sandstone monument outside of the courthouse.

Since 2015, according to the county, those Confederate plaques have been safely kept in the basement of the old Federal Reserve Bank building across from the courthouse, which is now owned by the county.

Soon, the empty sandstone monuments will hold special plaques with the names and years of service of local Texas Legislative Medal of Honor recipients.

For some who followed the recent decision by the city, they say it was worth the wait.

"We have to understand the context of why this was erected, who it was erected by, and why it's important to take it down now in 2017," Segura said.