So seeing how everyone is sort of bunching up in the mid-west/west-coast I figured I might toss this out for future reference:

Without trains, anything on the west-side of the country won't be going east. Or not a lot of things like agricultural produce, which outside of major large-scale manufacturer operations anywhere won't be much, and if there was any east-bound trade from the west it certainly wouldn't navigate that great [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains_(United_States)]American Desert[/url]. And even when it was being conquered for westward expansion the railroad was really the ones responsible because they paid folk to move out there and settle so they could build towns, and they also supplied the resources for that. The discerning traveler might make better time hitting the Rio Grande to pop out in the Golf by crossing the Chihuahua State if they're starting off in the Tabernacle Empire, and that is if they even want to go east with the entire Western Sea Board open to them from the Baja region and San Diego.

Likewise, economic activity in the Great Lakes would be pretty weak and the only major economic activity would be local and within those states at the lake, and maybe down the Mississippi River through the Illinois-Michigan Canal. But in a region where the only non-perishable industry has been northern timber and copper, there's not a lot of export opportunity for long-distance trade. In fact, the only thing of significant trade value historically for the region are perishable food stuffs. And this perishable food stuffs would in most cases expire before reaching major east-coast markets if hauled by land, even if you used the lakes as far as Niagra to shave time, you're getting it as far as Buffalo, New York before it starts to get risky for an over-land trek. The only saving grace that might even survive in this world for the Great Lakes and greater Mid West region would be the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Canal]Erie Canal[/url], and it's pretty much the only thing outside of the interstate rail system that made Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois economically viable options of settlement despite their over-all very fertile soil.

Before the canal was built farmers were forced to plow the very shit soil and face the very shit weather of New England out of economic necessity, the ports were nearby (Boston, New York) and their produce could get out to market. But once the canal opened a New England farmer became a Mid Western farmer because they could grow more in abundance in much more generous soil and still had safe access to the markets of New York and beyond as they did as New England farmers. Michigan wheat was actually very much coveted.

But anything passing from the west to east isn't likely very much and handled like the Silk Road anyways  the distance is so vast and a single unbroken caravan across land would be very expensive.

Myself and Ms. Texas might honestly be the only economically viable players. The Caliphate is one pissed-off New-York away from being rendered economically like any interior European nation for the time, poor, bereft of activity.

And I think while I'm on this tract of mind, without any large scale transportation for long distances most of the 'interior' activity for the likes of myself and The Dow Dragon would be - if not invested already in raw material extraction - would be pretty minimal and devoted to keeping existing settlements and communities alive. It would be a subsistence operation, which is a large part of the Tabernacle Empire's agriculture activity in those areas already. The only sort of agriculture that can last the distance from field to market would be ranching. But export-minded agriculture would be much more on the coast and trade-navigable rivers, and those would be the richer regions.

Jes' sayin' fams.

EDIT - I double checked the navigability of the Rio Grande and apperantly it's pretty much unusable for large boats upriver from Rio Grande City, only that small section of the river between it and Brownsville is usable, so [@The Dow Dragon] only really controls the only usable section of the river commercially.