To solve the initial construction cable forces of a completed cable-stayed bridge，a method that combines unstressed cable length and forward-iteration is proposed.Firstly，the unstressed length of each cable is calculated according to the completed bridge state.Then，the initial cable forces are obtained by using the unstressed cable length for the forward analysis.The initial construction cable forces are adjusted by difference iteration.Finally，the initial construction cable forces are fine-tuned according to the deformation of the pylon deformation to obtain the bridge completion state that satisfies the deviation requirements.The proposed method is employed in a cable-stayed bridge with a known completion state to calculate the initial construction cable forces.The example shows that the calculation workload can be reduced by this method.The deviation of this completed state from target meets engineering accuracy requirements.