they arent. when i built it, i i had all the intentions of keeping them connected in the beginning, but ended up making the cp pedestal part too tall, so i had to trim off a section on the bottom...which was the connector part. well i had the option of building a carriage bolted connector, but ended up not doing that for fear of it looking all ugly with carriage bolts sticking out. so its not connected at all! i built a little bridge type thing that is flush with the monitor pedestal and the cp pedestal and it just sits on the ground covering the wires. yeah its not the best setup, but it works. plus i can move the cp if i have to. in my plans i will recommend not doing the way i did it.