Bridge cables are subjected to small relative sliding and high contact stresses among wires under fluctuating loads and repeated bending, eventually leading to fretting-fatigue failure. This paper presents a series of fretting fatigue tests with different fretting and fatigue parameters to investigate the tribological properties, fretting fatigue characteristics and fracture failure mechanism. Results show that the fretting-fatigue failure evolved from surface micro cracks at the trailing edges generated from a mixed slip regime. Larger fretting amplitude induced larger tangential force and coefficient of friction, and decreased life. Fretting scar depth increased as fretting-fatigue proceeded while the growth rate was declining.