Abstract: In order to establish the seismic design method for the bridge on the basis of Pushover analysis, continuous rigid frame bridge with 3 spans was exampled to perform seismic analysis under earthquake action E2 in the paper. In the elastio-plastic analysis, the construction site of the bridge was defined as class Ⅱ and the seismic intensity was 8 degree. Two loading types, namely, fundamental mode loading and uniformly acceleration loading, were applied along the longitudinal and lateral directions to demonstrate the effect of the horizontal loading type on the seismic performance and design of the bridge. The analysis results show that the type of the horizontal loading has little influence on the seismic performance of the rigid frame bridge. The method in the paper can investigate the elastic-plastic condition of the overal structure and perform the seismic design for the bridge under earthquake action E2.