What if the railway boom had gone differently?

Steam rail collapses the cost and time of moving people and freight overland.

If it had gone differently: Interiors stay isolated; cities stay walkable-sized and national markets never really knit together.

The real history on Wikipedia ↗

Later turning points that leaned on the railway boom. Change it in the game and the ripples reach all of these.

1. 1825The Erie Canal. Without it, The American interior stays cut off from the coast; the Midwest fills up decades later and through other cities.
2. 1869The transcontinental railroad. Without it, The American West stays remote; settlement and the national market crawl for another generation.
3. 1870The first globalisation. Without it, The world economy stays a patchwork of regions; no belle-époque boom, and no 1914 shock when it unwinds.
4. 1871German unification. Without it, Central Europe stays a cluster of middle powers; the balance that broke in 1914 never assembles.