In this study, a single analytical model was employed to simulate the low-frequency impulsive components in near-fault ground motions, facilitating the investigation of the seismic response characteristics and damage of simply supported beam bridges under near-fault pulse-type ground motions. These components were superimposed with the high-frequency components obtained from the actual near-fault ground motion data after filtering, resulting in a synthesized near-fault pulse-type ground motion as the input. Then, a finite element numerical model was established using a four-span simply supported beam bridge as a prototype. Nonlinear seismic response time-history analysis was conducted to systematically study the effects of factors, including fault distance, number of impulsive pulses, moment magnitude, and the high-frequency components of the synthesized ground motion on the top displacement and damage state of bridge piers, along with the displacement and collision forces on the main beams. The results revealed that the low-frequency components of the ground motion served as the primary influencing factors on the impulsive peak values. Furthermore, the low-frequency impulsive components in the ground motion were used to determine the intensity of the simply supported beam bridge. When the moment magnitude of the ground motion was relatively small, the seismic response of the simply supported beam bridge was greater due to the larger peak value of a single impulsive pulse compared to multiple repeated pulses. Conversely, for ground motions with larger moment magnitudes, the seismic response of the bridge was greater under the action of multiple repeated pulses. The high-frequency components in the ground motion had a relatively minor impact on the structural seismic response; however, they affected the peak and residual displacements of the bridge. The study's findings underscore the fact that the influence of high-frequency components on structural response should not be overlooked during damage analysis.