In the mid-18th early 19th century Britain followed by France, Germany and Belgium developed from agriculture to self-sustaining industrial societies. Especially Britain gained sustain and regular economic growth, which was the start into a new world of material wealth and prosperity. The success of Britain, France, Germany and Belgium clearly established them as the leading economic and military powers. Other European countries made only slowly progress but the real challenge to the supremacy of western Europe in the new industrial world came not from Eastern or the Southern powers, but from across the Atlantic, the new and upstarting nation of the United States of America.
Here is the point, where the invention of railways and the locomotives including steaming engine influenced the American identity, but not only America is changed, the entire western hemisphere is changed. Without the faster transportation of goods on rails such extreme economical progress would not have been possible. It also changed the traveling habit of people, it became cheaper and more comfortable to travel through the country and make vacation somewhere else, far away from home. Especially in such a big country as the United States it influenced America and the American people significantly.
The economic progress of North America during the the mid 18th and the 19th centuries was absolutely tremendous, and still unparalleled in history. The United States economy had the highest growing rate in the world for nearly 200 years. For the first five decades this growth was based on exploitation of natural resources, agriculture and minerals, but in the early 19th century, industrialization became increasingly important. By 1850 the U.S. was firmly established in a strong industrial process and by beginning of the 19th century the economic was not only fully industrialized but also the world's largest and most advanced economy.