Summary: Fractional calculus is used to model the viscoelastic behavior of a damping layer in a simply supported beam. The beam is analyzed by using both a continuum formulation and a finite element formulation to predict the transient response to a step loading. The construction of the finite element equations of motion and the resulting nontraditional orthogonality conditions for the damped mode shapes are presented. Also presented are the modified forms of matrix iteration required to calculate eigenvalues and mode shapes for the damped structure. The continuum formulation, also incorporating the fractional calculus model, is used to verify the finite element approach. The location of the poles (damping and frequency) are found to be in satisfactory agreement, as are the modal amplitudes for the first several modes.