Prince William and Kate visit September 11 Memorial & Museum

Amid pouring rain, Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, visited the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan on Tuesday morning. The stop was part of the royal couple’s brief but highly anticipated New York visit, which began on Sunday.

The couple’s tour of the Sept. 11 memorial and museum is believed to be the first time that members of the British royal family have visited the museum, which opened to the public earlier this year. Among the estimated 2,606 killed in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, were 67 British nationals.

On Tuesday, the Duchess of Cambridge laid flowers at the edge of a memorial pool followed by a moment of silence. The couple then entered the museum, which features objects from the 2001 attacks, including fragments of the airplanes used to take down the Twin Towers.

Prince William and Kate were shown various galleries inside the museum and signed their names on the museum’s visitor registry.

After the museum, the royal couple visited the lobby of One World Trade Center, according to the official Twitter feed of the British Consulate in New York. The new skyscraper, which stands on the World Trade Center site, is the tallest building in the U.S.

As part of their New York trip, the royal couple is also scheduled to stop at the Empire State Building and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they will attend an event for the University of St. Andrews.

Prince William and the duchess will spend a total of three days in the U.S. Their activities included a basketball game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where they rubbed shoulders with athletes and celebrities. Prince William also traveled to Washington where he met with President Obama at the White House.

In 2011, the royal couple visited Los Angeles, where they visited various institutions, including Inner-City Arts in downtown’s skid row.

Twitter: @DavidNgLAT