In order to investigate the seismic performance of the suspended structure with viscous damper during earthquakes, the shaking table tests were carried out on two 1/20 scaled models of suspended structures, which were equipped with rigid rods and viscous dampers respectively. The dynamic characteristics, damping ratio, structural response and damping effect of model structures were researched. The test results show that compared with the common suspended model structure, the natural frequency of the suspension damping model structure is reduced, while the damping ratio is improved, especially the first frequency and the corresponding damping ratio. The peak accelerations of the top of the main structure and the fifth suspended-floor of the suspension damping model structure are less than those of the common suspended model structure, but the damping amplitude of the peak acceleration of the fifth suspended-floor is even up to 94.34%. The maximum displacement of the top of the main structure is also distinctly smaller than that of the common suspended model structure. Different seismic wave input has different damping effect, in which the effect of Taft wave is the best, the El Centro wave is the second, and the last is artificial wave. However, the maximum relative displacement between the main structure and the suspended-floor is greater than that of the common suspended model structure, which shows that the stronger the connection between the main and secondary structures, the smaller the relative displacement. It also indicates that the suspension damping model structure takes advantage of the swing of the suspended-floors and the viscous dampers to consume energy, so that the suspended structure with viscous dampers has better effect of energy dissipation and vibration reduction.