Abstract：Research purposes： With large - scale railway construction in complicated geographical mountainous areas in west China，thousands of large - span bridges with high - pier have been built. It is significant to conduct research on seismic control of high pier railway bridge in earthquake zone. The development of China’s high pier railway bridge was summarized，the main principles and measures of seismic control of railway bridge were reviewed. The development trends of high pier railway bridge were discussed. Some references for damping control of high pier railway bridge were provided. Research conclusions:(1) The high pier railway bridge belongs to irregular structure. Current codes for seismic design do not apply to this type of bridge structure，thus, new researches need to be carried out. (2) Rail restraints increase the longitudinal contact of the adjacent bridge span，so it is beneficial to overall seismic for adjacent pier height with a large difference. Track deformation effect on bridge sismic when the earthquake strikes should be carried out. (3) It is suitable for high pier railway bridge to adopt additional damping devices. It is better to detemine the parameters and arrangements of the damping devices according to the specific analysis. (4) According to the successful application of passive energy dissipation system in tall buildings，it is possible to introduce passive energy dissipation system to high pier brdge. (5) Active/semi - active/ hybrd control technology has great development prospects. (6) The research results can provide the references for the study of seismic control of high pier railway brdge.