The opinion, that the condition of bridges can be monitored by vibration analysis has lately been widely accepted. The methods applied cover a broad range from the simplest detection of the first natural frequency to the presentation of the full weaponry of theoretical and experimental modal analysis. Here we try to suggest an experimental method, which using the simplest tools offers to produce sufficient information about the natural frequencies and modal shapes of a bridge. Based on a multipoint measurement set the keys of the proposed method are the natural excitation, the definition of artificial additive and subtractive time functions, the averaging process of frequency functions and the phase-picture functions defined here. The benefit of the proposed method is illustrated with a theoretical and a practical example.

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