A meticulously corrected 1957-versus-2024 photo comparison from Twin Peaks makes the scale of San Francisco's vertical growth undeniable — and the permit record explains how each tower got there.

On Twin Peaks, the view northeast takes in three fixed points: the Bay Bridge western landing to the right, the Mark Hopkins Hotel to the left, Market and Dolores at the base. A 1957 photograph of that view and a 2024 match, corrected this week for zoom and parallax by Reddit user /u/old_gold_mountain on r/bayarea, hold all three landmarks constant across both frames. What changes between them is the vertical.

The comparison pins the same right edge, the same left anchor, the same street corner — making the scale honest in a way most before-and-afters don't bother with. The most prominent addition in the 2024 frame rises above the Transbay district at 415 Mission St.: Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco at 1,070 feet. The first construction permit was filed in September 2013, valued at $336.2 million — the largest single permit the city had issued at that time, according to reporting by Bisnow and BuildZoom. More than 130 permits followed at that address over the life of the project, carrying a combined city-recorded valuation of roughly $446 million; total project cost exceeded $1.1 billion. The tower opened January 8, 2018.

At street level, that stretch of Market Street is still being altered. Ten permits were filed or issued on the corridor between June 26 and July 14, 2026 — ranging from minor interior work to permit 202607104845 at 1 Market St., a $1,491,000 alteration filed July 10.

In SoMa, the neighborhood that fills the lower third of the matched frame, the ground-level data reads differently. Thirty eviction notices have been filed there in the last 90 days; 933 service requests came through 311 in the past seven days. Recent filings include the 1000 block of Mission Street, dated July 7, and the 100 and 200 blocks of 9th Street, both dated July 1. The Financial District immediately to the north — where the towers are densest in the frame — recorded zero eviction notices in the same 90-day window and zero 311 requests in the past week.

The corrected image holds steady because /u/old_gold_mountain fixed the frame: same bridge landing, same hotel corner, same bottom street. What the photograph can show is the skyline. What it can't show is the permit number, the cost, or the eviction notice filed in the shadow of the tower — the fine print that explains what the silhouette became.