Pope Francis visits Sept. 11 Memorial

NEW YORK (AP) - Pope Francis is visiting the National Sept. 11 Memorial at ground zero.

To a cheer from the gathered crowd, he walked toward the two massive waterfall pools that mark the footprints of the World Trade Center's twin towers before they were felled by the 2001 terrorist attacks. 

Francis visited the site after a speech at the United Nations. He's on a three-city tour of the U.S.

Francis prayed silently and laid a white rose at the edge of one of the pools, inscribed with the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field, as well as in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

He shook hands with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and began speaking with some 18 people from 10 victims' families.