Cables are used in many applications such as cable-stayed bridges, suspension bridges, transmission lines, telephone lines, etc. Generally, the linear relationship is inadequate to present the behavior of cable structure. In finite element analysis, cables have always been modeled as truss elements. For these types of model, the nonlinear behavior of cables has been always ignored. In order to investigate the importance of the nonlinear effect on the structural system, the effect of cable stiffness has been studied. The nonlinear behavior of cable is due to its sag. Therefore, the cable pretension provides a large portion of the inherent stiffness. Since a cable-stayed bridge has numerous degrees of freedom, analytical methods at present are not convenient to solve this type of structures but numerical methods may be feasible. It is necessary to provide a different and more representative analytical model in order to present the effect of cable stiffness on cable-stayed bridges in numerical analysis. The characteristics of cable deformation have also been well addressed. A formulation of modified modulus of elasticity has been proposed using a numerical parametric study. In order to investigate realistic bridges, a cable-stayed bridge having the geometry similar to that of Quincy Bayview Bridge is considered. The numerical results indicate that the characteristics of the cable stiffness are strongly nonlinear. It also significantly affects the structural behaviors of cable-stayed bridge systems.