New York ? It wasn’t exactly the frenzy that welcomed Prince Charles 20 years ago on a U.S. tour that saw his late, radiant wife, Princess Diana, dancing with John Travolta at a White House dinner.

Indeed, British media had predicted scant interest from Americans in the first joint trip to the United States by Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, since they tied the knot in April.

But 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 9-11 attacks.

The visit was designed to underline trans-Atlantic ties, and Charles paid tribute to victims of terrorism and said the attacks in New York in 2001 and in London on July 7 helped strengthen the bond.

“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.

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 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.

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.

The duchess seemed at ease, smiling broadly as she accepted a bouquet of flowers from a small girl. Camilla, who has been trying to project a more glamorous image, wore a dark rose Italian wool crepe jacket and dress with velvet chiffon trim by designer Roy Allen.

Later, at the museum reception, the duchess had the chance to showcase another of the 40 outfits she brought for the trip, which also will include meetings with hurricane victims in New Orleans, homeless people in San Francisco and organic farmers in Marin County, Calif.

Camilla did not join Charles in the afternoon when he headed to the United Nations, where he was greeted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The U.S. tour is also part of a careful palace plan to win acceptance for the duchess, long reviled in the British press – and among Diana-philes – as the woman who broke up the royal romance. “There were three of us in that marriage,” Diana told a television reporter in 1995.

Charles and Diana divorced in 1996; Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris the following year.

Papers in London took note of a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, which found 59 percent of Americans surveyed saying they were “not at all interested” in the visit, 22 percent were “not too interested,” 13 percent were “somewhat interested” and 6 percent were “very interested.”

Today, the royal couple will travel to Washington, where they will have an intimate lunch and a lavish dinner with President Bush and his wife, Laura, at the White House.