Due to the complex geological conditions and topography of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, the construction difficulty is high. The traditional overhead upright wharf can no longer meet the needs of construction and development, leading to the emergence of the inland steel protective tube-reinforced concrete large-scale composite structure wharf. In view of this, the dock structure of the Chongqing Guoyuan Port Phase II project was taken as a prototype, and through the combination of large-scale physical model tests and finite element models, a study on the transverse bearing performance of the steel protective tube-reinforced concrete large-scale composite structure was conducted. The results show that the shape of the structural hysteresis curve gradually evolves from a bow shape to a reverse S-shape and Z-shape, with deteriorating energy dissipation capacity, and the hysteresis loop exhibits a certain degree of pinching characteristics. As the number of load cycles increases, the degradation coefficient shows an overall downward trend. At the same time, a solid model was established using ABAQUS finite element software, simulating the hysteresis curve, skeleton curve, and concrete damage state of the structural model, with a good overall fitting result.