What would have happened if the transcontinental railroad was never assembled?

They say the world got smaller when they completed the railroad.  California and the east coast were connected due to the railroad system.  The final touched on the completion were in Utah and it was completed in Promontory Point May 10^th 1869.  They needed the railroad for several different reasons; to replace oxen, the use of steamboats and stage coaches to help them transport goods or personal items. 

Now that the railroad was complete people could get on the train and travel from California and go all the way across the country to the east coast in about a week.  They no longer had to go by horse and camp or take the boat from the Panama Canal to get from one side of the country to the other.  People started to move and start up towns along the railroad to startup businesses and shops.  Moving was easy because you would load up your cargo and put it on the train. 

I believe that the railroad system change our world dramatically.  These times the world was inventing more and more things to industrialize the country.  I think it was a matter of time when the world would have come up with a way to move large amounts of cargo because taking the boat was far too long.  If the country is going to become a land of promise and a new start then they needed to find a way to move the products faster.