We are too fat.

We are too flat.

And Mobile should be much more portly.

The coming I-10 bridge over the Mobile River could be a solution to all three problems. We just need to show a little gumption. We need to demand a walking/biking path along with that new bridge.

For years, the Alabama highway department and its contractor, Volkert Engineering, have dismissed this idea as impractical.

But it would be impractical for us NOT to include a walking/biking path.

Mobile has a 33.7 percent obesity rate, fourth highest among metropolitan areas in the U.S. Mobile United/Leadership Mobile is spearheading a health initiative called

We Mobilians are flatlanders, so there is no way to enjoy sweeping vistas of our town, no way to get up high and behold our city. Our two skyscrapers have no view that's open to the general public, no observation decks where a family can go gaze out on a Sunday afternoon. Imagine a trail 200 feet high over the river, with rest stops where you could munch on a sandwich while taking in our skyline.

We call ourselves the Port City, but folks can come to Mobile and drive around for days without ever seeing our port, the reason Mobile exists. Except for Cooper Riverside Park and the impending maritime museum, our working man's harbor has been walled off from view by the Alabama State Docks. When you drive through our tunnels, your head might be 20 feet away from the hull of a freighter from Hong Kong, but you'd never know it. Neither will motorists traveling over the new bridge. They'll get a grand glimpse of Mobile Bay to the south or the Cochrane-Africatown Bridge to the north, but they won't see the State Docks and they won't see Austal or the Mobile Convention Center. The bridge itself will be in the way. A walking/biking path will allow us to properly celebrate our port.

Imagine hopping on the trail at Texas Street Park, stopping to catch your breath over the river, and then pedaling on to Battleship Park, where you could even connect with the Eastern Shore Trail and hightail it for Battle's Wharf.

In the past, the naysayers at ALDOT and Volkert have shaken their heads paternalistically.

"That'd be nice, but the approaches would be dangerously steep."

"Truck traffic would be too noisy; who would ever use it?"

"Cost prohibitive. No way to afford something like that."

Cyclists on Cooper River Bridge.

Well, they could afford it for the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston. Its walking/biking path is 2.7 miles long. Since it opened in 2005, hundreds of thousands of cyclists and pedestrians have enjoyed it. And Charleston created an annual Cooper River Bridge Festival and Run that draws a throng from across the country. According to the bridge's website: "Letters, testimony, and even a local bumper sticker campaign worked to add a pedestrian/bicycle component into the bridge design." (See what a little gumption can do?)

And they could afford it when they rebuilt the Woodrow Wilson Bridge between Maryland and Washington, D.C., on the I-95/I-495 corridor. Since 2009, the 1.1-mile long bridge trail across the Potomac River is shared by walkers, bikers, runners and in-line skaters, and is completely separated from automotive traffic. It includes three "bump-out" areas where users can take a break and enjoy informational displays detailing the area's history as well as use telescopes to view the striking vistas.

The good people of Charleston and Washington, D.C., are worth it. Are we?

What do you say, Mobile mayoral candidates?

Must we remain blubbery groundbound landlubbers?

Or will you fight for our right to some height?

Share your views in the comments below, and take part in our bridge poll here.

(This editorial was written by Mike Marshall, director of statewide commentary, for the Mobile al.com Editorial Board. You can contact him at mmarshall@al.com.)