In this paper the stability of two basic types of cable stayed bridges, suspended by one or two rows of cables, is studied. Two linearized models of the center span describing the vertical and torsional oscillations are investigated. After the analysis of these models, a stability criterion is formulated. The criterion expresses a relation between the eigenvalues of the vertical and torsional oscillations of the center span. The continuous dependence of the eigenvalues on some data is studied and...