This paper preliminarily investigates the effectiveness of various control systems, such as passive, active, semiactive and hybrid control, for seismic protection of cable-stayed bridges by examining the ASCE first generation benchmark problem for a cable-stayed bridge. This benchm.0.00000ark problem considers the cable-stayed bridge that is scheduled for completion in Missouri, USA In 2003. Seismic considerations were strongly considered in the design of this bridge due to location of the bridge and its critical role as a principal crossing of the Mississippi River. Based on detailed drawings of this cable-stayed bridge, a three-dimensional linearized evaluation model has been developed to represent the complex behavior of the bridge. A set of eighteen evaluation criteria has been developed to evaluate the capability of each control system. In this study, four passive control systems, one active control system, two semiactive control systems and three hybrid control systems are considered. Numerical simulation results show that all the control systems are effective in reducing the responses of the benchmark cable-stayed bridge under the historical earthquakes. To get good performance, however, the passive control systems need quite large control forces compared to other control systems. The simulation results also demonstrate that the passive, semiactive and hybrid control systems are robust to the stiffness uncertainty of the structure. Therefore, the semiactive and hybrid control systems are more appropriate in real applications for full-scale civil infrastructures.