Gravity dam is a typical structure that has been frequently used in the fields of water conservancy engineering, and the safety of the structure has received widespread attention recently. Due to earthquakes or other reasons, gravity dams normally have damage such as cracks in practical service. Damage in the structures can alter the structural dynamic behavior and seriously affect structural performance. Maintaining safety and integrity of the gravity dam structures requires a better understanding of dynamic response of structure with damage and associated damage detection method. In order to study thoroughly the dynamic behavior of gravity dam with damage, the sweep vibration responses of the gravity dam with and without damage are investigated. The experimental results show that the peak-peak acceleration responses all increase for the structure is with crack. At the same time, a structural damage detection method, i.e., the local damage factor (LDF) method, is considered in the study of gravity dam damage detection when the dam is subjected to the base excitation. It is shown that the LDF method can be used as a damage index and is capable of evaluating both the presence and relative severity of structural damage, and it can be used as a viable condition assessment and damage identification technique to detect and quantify the damage in the gravity dam. Gravity dam is a typical structure that has been frequently used in the fields of water conservancy engineering, and the safety of the structure has received yet attention recently recently. Due to earthquakes or other reasons, gravity dams normally have damage such as cracks in practical service. Damage in the structures can alter the structural dynamic behavior and seriously affect structural performance. Maintaining safety and integrity of the gravity dam structures requires a better understanding of dynamic response of structure with damage and associated damage detection method. In order to study thoroughly the dynamic behavior of gravity dam with damage, the sweep vibration responses of the gravity dam with and without damage are investigated. The experimental results show that the peak-peak acceleration responses all increase for the structure is with crack. At the same time, a structural damage detection method, ie, the local damage factor (LDF) method, is considered in the stu dy of gravity dam damage detection when the dam is subjected to the base excitation. It is shown that the LDF method can be used as a damage index and is capable of evaluating both evaluating the structural and relative severity of structural damage, and it can be used as a viable condition assessment and damage identification technique to detect and quantify the damage in the gravity dam.