The rocking pier system (RPS) allows the columns to rock on beam or foundation surfacesduring the attacks of a strong earthquake. Literatures have proved that seismic energy dissipated by the RPSthrough the column impact is limited. To enhance the energy dissipation capacity of a RPS bridgesubstructure, frictional hinge dampers (FHDs) were installed and evaluated by shaking table tests. Thesupplemental FHDs consist of two brass plates sandwiched by three steel plates. The strategy ofself-centering design is to isolate the seismic energy by RPS at the columns and then dissipate the energy byFHDs at the bridge deck. Component tests of FHD were first conducted to verify the friction coefficient anddynamic characteristic of the FHDs. In total, 32 shaking table tests were conducted to investigate parameterssuch as wave forms of the earthquake (El Centro 1940 and Kobe 1995) and normal forces applied on thefriction dampers. An analytical model was also proposed to compare with the tested damping of the bridgesub-structure with or without FHDs.