Royal Couple Greeted Warmly

Prince Charles, Camilla Start U.S. Trip With Tribute To 9/11 Victims

(CBS/AP)  It wasn't the frenzy that welcomed Prince Charles 20 years ago on a U.S. tour that saw his radiant wife, the late Princess Diana, but the Prince and his current wife, Camilla, received an enthusiastic reception at the beginning of their U.S. tour.

Several hundred onlookers who gathered at ground zero to see the royal couple were supportive.

"He really does care about people, but a lot of people think, 'Oh, he's a prince, what does he know about us, what does he care?"' said Nancy Hodl, a 59-year-old retired secretary from New Jersey.

Under unseasonably balmy November sunshine, small but enthusiastic crowds greeted the couple as they began their weeklong U.S. trip Tuesday by paying tribute to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano visiting the site was the first step on a trip designed to strengthen a transatlantic bond between the two countries (video).

"Both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given each other," the prince said at a reception for supporters of a memorial garden for the 67 Britons who died when the hijacked jets slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Charles later attended a roundtable at the United Nations and appealed to business leaders to help millions of young people find jobs.

He and Camilla later attended a celebrity-studded reception at the Museum of Modern Art.

The couple began their U.S. tour by traveling by limousine from their chartered jet to ground zero, the vast site where the World Trade Center once stood. They viewed the site and visited a room full of mementos left by families of the victims.

The prince said he and his wife were "profoundly moved by what we saw — not just the scale of the outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and of loss."

At nearby Hanover Square, the couple unveiled the cornerstone to the memorial garden. They walked around to greet some of the several hundred well-wishers and onlookers who gathered behind barricades at the square, named for King George I of Hanover. The garden, due to be completed next summer, is designed as a green corner of Britain in Manhattan, with topiary trees, boxwood hedges and a sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor.

Alexandra Clarke, a Briton whose daughter Suria died on Sept. 11, said the prince was "quietly and personally very kind" to families of the victims.

"They're both very relaxed people," said Clarke, who met the couple at a private reception for British victims' relatives. "They were really genuinely interested in hearing the stories that people had to tell."