The effects of weight and axial inertia of a beam are taken into account for studying the nonlinear vibration of the Timoshenko beam due to external loads. The combination of Galerkins method and Runge-Kutta method are employed to obtain the dynamic responses of the beam. A concentrated force and a two-axle vehicle traversing on the beam are taken as two examples to investigate the response characteristics of the beam. Results show that the effect of axial inertia of the beam increases the fundamental period of the beam. Further, both the dynamic deflection and the dynamic moment of the beam obtained with including the effect of axial inertia of the beam are greater than those of the beam without including that effect of the beam.