Karen,
Where you removed the bolts near the top are the "slugs." The springs are a friction fit on the taper of that slug on the top, and the taper on the fork bottom. Not a lot holds them together.
So in a perfect world, they would slide right down once you removed the bolts. I had to cut my forks off to get to them, but this was also required because the forks were welded at the lower piece anyway.