Why Do Bagels Have Holes?

I’m sure you have always wondered, WHY do bagels have holes? According to Maria Balinska, the author of The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, the hole allows the bagel to cook faster, since there is a greater surface area for the volume of dough. It also means that you get more crust for the same amount of dough.

To accommodate the hole, bakers put the bagels on poles in order to carry them all at the same time. Even in the 1970s, bagels were distributed on rope or string from the wholesale cellar bakeries around the city to delis and supermarkets. 

Is there such a thing as a bagel without a hole? Yes, it's called a bialy; the Atlantic called it the "bagel's lesser-known cousin.”