To obtain the extremely low-cycle crack initiation life of thick-walled steel bridge piers, numerical analysis of the thick-walled steel bridge piers is carried out. The hysteretic behaviors of thick-walled steel bridge piers under three different kinds of cyclic loading patterns are predicted by using combined hardening model as constitutive law of steel. Crack initiation life of steel bridge piers corresponding to different mesh sizes is determined by using both local and non-local damage methods in Ge model. Then, some parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effect of radius-thickness ratio and slenderness ratio of the piers on crack initiation life by employing Ge model. The analytical results show that the combined hardening model of steel can accurately predict the hysteretic behavior of thick-walled steel bridge piers, and non-local damage method can be employed to accurately predict the crack initiation life of steel bridge piers. On the basis of parametric analytical results, empirical formulas for predicting the crack initiation life of steel bridge piers are proposed.